^mui' 



m 





ass. 



Book. 



GopiglitiN™- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



READING THE BIBLE 



By WILLIAM LYON PHELPS 



Essays on Modern No\^lists 

Essays on Russian Novelists 

Essays on Books 

Teaching in School and College 

Reading the Bible 

The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement 

The Advance of the English Novel 

The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth 

Century 
Archibald Marshall 
Browning: How to Know Him 
A Dash at the Pole 
The Twentieth Century Theatre 



READING THE BIBLE 



BY 
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS 

LAMPSON PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT YALE 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1919 

All rights reserved 






Copyright, 1919 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Set up and electrotyped. Published May, igig 



m 30 19iy 

©CLA5253U9 

-wo \ 



^ 



PREFACE 

THIS book is composed of three lectures, 
on the L. P. Stone foundation, dehvered 
at Princeton Theological Seminary, on the third, 
fourth, and fifth of February, 191 9. I wish 
to express to the professors and students at 
Princeton my hearty appreciation of the honour 
of their invitation, and of their delightful hos- 
pitality. 

W. L. P. 

Yale University, 

Tuesday^ 11 March 19 19. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. Reading the Bible . . . . i 

II. St. Paul as a Letter Writer . . 47 

III. Short Stories in the Bible ... 92 



vii 



READING THE BIBLE 



READING THE BIBLE 



READING THE BIBLE 

WHEN I was five years old, my mother 
offered me a dollar if I would read the 
Bible through, from the first chapter of Genesis 
to the last chapter of Revelation. I confess 
that my price has risen since then; but in my 
boyhood I had more leisure and less cash than 
I have now. My total income was six cents a 
week; and as I was expected to deposit one cent 
in the contribution box every Sunday, I always 
regarded my income as five cents, unconsciously 
prophetic of the modem income-tax law. I 
am glad that my mother bribed me to read the 
Bible, and glad that she forced me to pay my 
way in church. At first I thought more of the 
dollar than of the Holy Writ; but as I became 
interested, I found keener joy in the race than 
in the prize. 
The best books for children are those that 



2 Reading the Bible 

never were intended for children. The ordinary 
child's Christmas book has an intolerable air 
of condescension like the ingratiating smile of 
the professional speaker to boys, who deceives 
only those in bad health. Even children de- 
serve intellectual respect and profit by it. No 
better books for children exist than Pilgrim^ s 
Progress^ GuUiver^s Travels, Robinson Crusoe, 
the anteburtonian Arabian Nights, and the 
Bible. Apart from the mental discipKne and 
emotional enrichment obtained from these 
books, there exists to a higher degree the same 
reason for the inclusion of classics in university 
education — the pleasure arising when educated 
people have the same background, a common 
storehouse of memory, from which current 
coin may freely circulate. 

In the Cornell Sun, March, 191 5, the venerable 
Andrew D. White, in response to a request 
that he should name the books that had given 
him most real profit and abiding pleasure, 
began his article with this paragraph: ^^ First 
of all, like most American boys and girls of my 
time, I was brought up to read the Bible, and 
was nurtured in one of the religious bodies 
which incorporates into its worship very many 



Reading the Bible 3 

of the noblest parts of our sacred books. Of 
these, the portions which have always seemed 
to me to give the keynote to the whole have 
been, for the Old Testament, the grander 
Psalms, the nobler portions of Isaiah, and above 
all the sixth chapter of Micah; and in the New 
Testament, the utterances ascribed to Jesus 
himself, of which the Sermon on the Mount is 
supreme, with St. James's definition of 'pure 
religion and undefiled,' and St. Paul's descrip- 
tion of ^charity.' In perfection of EngUsh 
diction, there is, in the whole range of literature, 
nothing to surpass the story of Joseph and his 
Brethren." 

When I first read the Bible, I made up my 
own mind as to the moral value of certain 
celebrated achievements, and was encouraged 
to express my views in the family conversation. 
It seemed to me that the murder of the sleeping 
Sisera was treacherous and detestable; and I 
obtained no pleasure from the exultant song 
of Deborah — 

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, 
and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot 
so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his 
chariots? 



4 Reading the Bible 

Many years later, while at an Episcopal church 
one evening, whither I had gone to hear one 
of my favourite preachers, the Rev. Harry P. 
Nichols, I was both surprised and pleased, to 
hear him say, at the conclusion of the reading 
for the day, which was this same Song, ^^We 
should remember that the glorification of this 
abominable deed came from Deborah, and not 
from Almighty God." 

Yet Sisera was a scoundrel, and the result of 
his deletion was good; the land had rest forty 
years. Furthermore, if he had won the battle, 
we learn from the words of his mother — capa- 
ble tigress for such a cub — that Captain Sisera 
would have treated the captured men and 
women even as the Germans treated the French 
and the Belgians. 

Nor did I think highly of Da\dd's exploit in 
killing Goliath. All small boys like heavy- 
weight champions; and it may be I had a fond- 
ness for the big fellow. Anyhow, it seemed to 
me that Da\id did not fight fairly. GoUath 
came out with the legitimate weapons for a 
stand-up fight; Da\dd stood at a safe distance 
and punctured his thick head with a slingshot. 
If he had missed the first time, he had four 



Reading the Bible 5 

more stones to throw; and if he had failed to 
make a hit with any of them, he would doubt- 
less have run away, and GoUath, encumbered 
with his heavy suit, would have found it quite 
impossible to catch him. I felt that David was 
something like a guttersnipe, who, afraid to 
fight with his fists, throws stones from a coign 
of vantage; or like a man with a magazine gun, 
taking the measure of a hippopotamus. 

David's affair with Goliath compares un- 
favourably with the exploit of Benaiah, narrated 
in that wonderful eleventh chapter of the first 
book of Chronicles, which celebrates the mighty 
men. 

Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man 
of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lion- 
hke men of Moab; also he went down and slew a lion 
in a pit in a snowy day. 

And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, 
five cubits high; and in the Egyptian's hand was a 
spear like a weaver's beam; and he went down to him 
with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's 
hand, and slew him with his own spear. 

These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and 
had the name among the three mighties. 

I had to comfort myself with the reflection 



6 Reading the Bible 

that on other occasions, David exhibited plenty 
of courage. 

It is of course possible to regard David's 
victory as the triumph of brains over brawn: 
Goliath was conservative; he was naturally 
beaten by the younger antagonist who used 
more modem methods. 

One day, by mere chance, I hit upon an 
expedient that not only helped me to remember 
the Bible stories, but which I heartily recom- 
mend to all parents and guardians who still 
wish to have the youth entrusted to their care 
become familiar with the Scriptures. I was 
drawing pictures. My prolonged and unusual 
silence in the room aroused the interest of 
my mother — ^^What are you doing there?'' 
'^Drawing pictures." "But don't you know 
this is Sunday? You must not draw pictures 
on Sunday." 

Nobody ought to infer from this that my 
mother was grim. She and I were intimate 
friends, imderstood each other perfectly, and 
got along together beautifully. 

Suddenly I remembered the Bible. "But 
mother, it'll be aU right to draw Bible pic- 
tures?" She turned this suggestion up and 



Reading the Bible 7 

down in her mind, and found it good. I there- 
fore set to work, and after another period of 
silence, I proudly exhibited to her a soldier, 
armed to the teeth, literally, for in addition to 
gun and pistol, he had a large knife in his 
mouth. 

''Didn't I tell you''— ''But mother, this is 
Joab, captain of the host of Israel." From 
this accidental Sabbatarian exploit, I conceived 
the idea of drawing a picture to illustrate every 
chapter in the Bible. And this method I rec- 
ommend to the young, for if one draws a picture 
for each chapter, one must read the whole 
chapter through to find the best available 
subject, and in this way, much will be remem- 
bered. It is not necessary to possess even 
rudimentary skill with the pencil. I was 
obliged to label my pictures distinctly — a union 
of literature and art — in order that spectators 
might know whether the picture were animal, 
vegetable, or mineral — the invariable first en- 
quiry in the game Twenty Questions. 

In the process of illustrating the sacred 
volume, I got along excellently well in Genesis, 
Joshua, Judges, Kings; there were frequent 
fights. But when I plunged into the jungle of 



8 Reading the Bible 

Paulas doctrinal epistles, my advance was slow. 
It is not easy properly to illustrate some of the 
chapters in Romans. I remember reading 
through the whole eighth chapter and finishing 
in despair. Determined not to be beaten, I 
began to read it again, and was brought up 
with a turn at the twenty-second verse: "the 
whole creation groaneth." I set to work with 
an inspiration. 

At that time I knew nothing of spiritual 
suffering; I supposed that people groaned only 
when there was something the matter with 
them. Like all small boys, I had eaten many 
green apples, sometimes with disastrous results. 
My conception of this passage was not alto- 
gether without a certain vast grandeur. I ht- 
erally supposed that once upon a time every 
living person in the world had indigestion at 
the same moment; hence imiversal compulsory 
groaning. I therefore drew a picture of a large 
nimiber of people standing in a circle, each in 
an attitude of anguish: and imder it I wrote 

THE WHOLE CREATION GROANETH 

When I brought this picture to my mother, she 
looked at it and for some minutes was unable 



Reading the Bible 9 

to speak; she paid it that reverent silence which 
I suppose is the highest tribute to art. Then 
she told me that I had made an original contri- 
bution to New Testament interpretation, for 
no commentator in the world had ever thought 
of this explanation. I retired proudly. After 
I grew up, I mistakenly regarded my exegesis 
as absurd; and it was only a few years ago that 
my respect for it was restored by my friend 
President Hadley. I had narrated the story, 
and he immediately said that after all I was 
correct; for from the orthodox point of view 
it was the unauthorised eating of apples that 
made the whole creation groan. 

Even before the printed Bible was known in 
England, manuscript copies were sometimes 
chained in the churches. There still exists at 
Hereford Cathedral a library of two thousand 
books, about fifteen hundred of them chained; 
some of these are in manuscript, and among 
them is a catalogue, also chained. Cromwell, 
as vicar-general, by injunctions in September, 
1538, and King Henry VIII, by a proclamation 
dated 6 May, 1541, provided that every parish 
church should supply itself with a Bible; the 
book was of course chained in some public 



lo Reading the Bible 

place. There were some copies of the Bible in 
Holland which excited the anger of the Devil, 
as was proved by the marks of his claws upon 
them; the result of which was a law requiring 
them to be chained. Foxe's Book of Martyrs 
was frequently available in similar fashion, 
^^not to be taken from the room." 

The so-called Authorised, or King James 
Version of the Bible, pubHshed in 1611, is the 
most important and the most influential book 
in English Hterature; and although copies of it 
do not fetch an extraordinary price, it is a 
rarity. The New York Public Library and the 
Morgan Library both have one; university 
Ubraries certainly should obtain one while it is 
possible to do so. I do not know how many 
were issued in the original edition, but for the 
most part, whether chained or not, they were 
read '^hard," and many of them fell to pieces 
or disappeared altogether. It is difficult to find 
one in perfect condition, the great desideratum 
of book-collectors. 

Li 161 1 Robert Barker had the exclusive 
right to sell the volume. The size was 16 
inches by 10V2; the binding was full calf, with 
covers hah an inch thick, hence called ^^ boards." 



Reading the Bible ii 

It weighed 1772 pounds. It was printed in 
black-letter, with three styles of type. The 
headlines, inserted words, summaries at heads 
of chapters, references in margin to parallel 
passages were roman, and the side-notes giving 
alternative readings were italic. 

The Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathe- 
dral in 161 1 bought a Bible of the new issue for 
two pounds, eighteen shillings; it was probably 
in handsome binding. 

Copies of the 161 1 first edition vary, as was 
common with other books in those days. The 
earher copies are known as the "he" Bible and 
later ones as the "she" Bible, because of an 
error in Ruth, III, 15, "and she went into the 
city," where in the earlier printing the word 
"he" was erroneously given. The "he" Bible 
is, in general, a better piece of mechanical work 
than the "she." The copies of the latter vary 
considerably, almost all showing combinations 
of sheets of two and perhaps three printings. 
To-day the "he" Bible is much more costly 
than the "she," although, as has been said, 
perfect copies of either are scarce. The Yale 
University Library is fortunate in having a 
perfect copy of the "he" Bible, and the same 



12 Reading the Bible 

Library also has an imperfect "she/' The 
Princeton Theological Seminary has two good 
copies of the " she '^ issue, one of them pre- 
sented by Henry van Dyke. 

The size of the vocabulary in the Authorised 
Version is a matter of some interest, and Pro- 
fessor Albert S. Cook of Yale undertook the 
task of coimting all the words. He says, "I 
compute the number of words in the Authorised 
Version to be 6,568. If to these were added 
the inflected forms of nouns, pronoims, or 
verbs, . . . the total would be 9,884.'' 

The Authorised Version is incomparably the 
best both for the pulpit and for educated 
readers. I remember in the year 1881 that the 
excitement over. the Revised Version of the 
New Testament was so intense that wheel- 
barrow loads of copies were sold in the streets, 
and one of the New York newspapers published 
the entire work in a Sunday issue. Many 
believed that the Revised Version woidd sup- 
plant the old; but after a few years, the people 
returned to the familiar book. There are some 
positive errors which were corrected in the 
Revised Version; but the nineteenth century 
scholars lost in beauty what they gained in 



Reading the Bible 13 

accuracy. There is no English in the world 



equal to that found in the 161 1 Bible. The re^ 
visers knew more Greek, and less EngKsh. 
Whether the original text was inspired or not, 
I have never felt any doubt as to the divine in- 
spiration of the version of 1611. 

For the benefit of soldiers in military camps 
and on duty overseas, an interesting and suc- 
cessful experiment in condensation has recently 
been made. With the assistance of some 
colleagues. Professor Charles F. Kent of Yale 
has prepared a new translation and rearrange- 
ment of the text, called The Shorter Bible, of 
which the volume containing the New Testa- 
ment appeared in 1918. All repetitions in the 
Gospel narrative are omitted; the subject- 
matter is logically and topically presented; the 
original is translated into dignified but strictly 
modem English, with the exclusion of archaic 
and obsolete words. In this convenient form, 
the greatest of all books seems bom anew. 

But except in special instances, and for 
special needs, the Authorised Version is the one 
above all others for the general reader. I was 
rather surprised to find in the Literary Supple- 
ment of the London Times, under date of the 



14 Reading the Bible 

fourth of July, 191 8, a statement that British 
churches are supplanting the Old with the 
Revised. This testimony is cited here, not 
merely as a witness to a regrettable tendency, 
but as a fine tribute to the version of 161 1. 

And they constantly regret the increasing tendency, 
noticeable in our churches, to replace the Authorised 
Version, which gave us all, perhaps more than all, the 
poetry and moving quaUty of the original, by the 
Revised, which sacrifices these things to a grammatical 
pedantry of intellectual precision. It is safe to prophesy 
that if the Bible is ever to be restored to the place it 
occupied a hundred years ago in the hearts and mem- 
ories of the EngUsh people it will not be through the 
medium of the Revised Version. It is poetry, not 
logical or grammatical accuracy, that moves and wins 
men, and that not only by its beauty, but by its higher 
and more essential truth. 

It is worth remembering, that shortly after the 
appearance of the Revised Version, Matthew 
Arnold made a plea for the retention of the 
Old. 

For those who wish to read the whole Bible, 
and every one at some time ought to read it 
all at least once, those of systematic habits can 
read it through — omitting the Apocrypha — ^in 



Reading the Bible 15 

exactly one year. There are 1,188 chapters, 
928 in the Old Testament, 260 in the New. If 
one reads three chapters every week day, and 
five every Sunday, one will finish the under- 
taking just within the year. Or, if one reads 
only on Sundays, and five chapters of the New 
Testament each Sunday, one will complete 
this task on the fifty-second day. 

This is a chronological rather than a logical 
way of reading the Bible, but it has its merits. 
It is naturally much better to read a whole 
book, or a whole connected narrative in one 
sitting. I remember, when caught in the rain 
one Sunday in a small town in England, that 
I pleasantly celebrated being marooned by 
reading the Gospel according to Mark without 
rising from my chair. 

The Bible is not only the foundation of 
modem English literature, it is the foundation 
of Anglo-Saxon civilisation. It seems a narrow 
and mistaken pohcy to drive it out of the pubKc 
schools. When I was a boy, every day in 
school began with a chapter in the Bible and 
the Lord's Prayer; surely there is nothing sec- 
tarian about that. Merely in dignity, the 
Hebrew and Christian religions compare favour- 



i6 Reading the Bible 

ably with the Greek and Roman, with which 
we were compelled to familiarise ourselves at 
school, and so far as I know, without protest 
from any source. If the Greek and Roman 
gods and goddesses were alive to-day, every 
one of them would be in jail. 

American boys and girls know more about 
the Bible than was the case twenty years ago; 
at the dawn of the twentieth century BibHcal 
ignorapce among our youth and particularly 
among college imdergraduates was by way 
of becoming a public scandal. Well-bred boys 
in many instances were innocent of even the 
penumbra of knowledge. Professor Loims- 
bury discovered a young gentleman in his 
classes who had never heard of Pontius Pilate. 
Twenty-five years ago I requested a Freshman 
to elucidate the line in As You Like It, ^^Here 
feel we not the penalty of Adam.^' He rephed 
confidently, ^'It was the mark imposed on him 
for slaying his brother.'^ To another I asked 
the meaning of the passage in Macbeth, "Or 
memorise another Golgotha." Seeing the blank 
expression on his handsome face, I said, "It is 
a New Testament reference." "Oh yes," he 
exclaimed, "it refers to Goliath." At about 



Reading the Bible 17 

this time, a young clergyman, obsessed with 
the importance of the '' higher criticism," 
announced that if he accepted a call to a west- 
em church, he must be allowed to preach to 
the younger people about the second Isaiah. 
*^ That's all right," said the deacon cheerfully; 
*^most of 'em don't know there is even one." 

What with regular school and college courses 
in the English Bible, and the publication of 
many first aids to Biblical ignorance, we have 
made much progress during the last twenty- 
five years; but it is still true that the young 
generation to-day are not so familiar with the 
Bible as was customary a century ago. Igno- 
rant as the boy, the girl, and the man in the 
street are, however, there is not the slightest 
indication of any falling away from knowledge 
among the poets, novelists, and dramatists. 
The Bible has been a greater influence on the 
course of English literature than all other 
forces put together; it is impossible to read 
standard authors intelligently without knowing 
something about the Bible, for they all assume 
familiarity with it on the part of their readers. 
But what particularly pleases me is that not 
only standard, but contemporary authors, 



1 8 Reading the Bible 

exhibit consciously or unconsciously intimacy 
with the Scriptures. So universally true is this, 
that to any young man or woman eaten with 
ambition to become a writer, I should advise 
first of all — ^^Know the Bible/' Ibsen said his 
chief reading was always in the Bible: ^^it is so 
strong and mighty." Tolstoi knew the Scrip- 
tures like Timothy; it is quite impossible to 
read Dostoevski's novels — and everyone wants 
to read them just now — ^without knowing the 
Bible. For four years in the Siberian prison, 
the New Testament was his most intimate 
friend. His greatest stories are really com- 
mentaries. Andreev, giving a list of the books 
that had influenced him the most, put the 
Bible first. Kipling's finest poem, the Reces- 
sional, is almost as close a paraphrase of Scrip- 
ture as the hymn Nearer, my God, to thee, which 
is a verse-translation of a passage in the twenty- 
eighth chapter of Genesis. Every modem 
novel, every modem play I read is almost sure 
to reveal an acquaintance with the great Book. 
And one of the chief features of twentieth- 
century drama has been the dramatisation of 
Bible stories, presenting to metropoHtan audi- 
ences the revelation of human passion where it 



Reading the Bible 19 

may be found in its most powerful and con- 
vincing forms. In Stuart Walker's theatre 
version of the Book of Job, the sublimity of the 
speeches is impressive. 

Within the last three years, three tributes 
have been paid to the Bible by three distin- 
guished men of letters, who, curiously enough, 
seem to be the last three on earth from whom 
such a tribute would have been expected. The 
finest Enghsh novel produced by the war is 
Mr. Britling Sees it Through^ by the apostle of 
scientific education, H. G. Wells; he could not 
have written it without a profound knowledge 
of the New Testament. The transcendent 
element in this story is its spiritual force, which 
he obtained directly from the Gospels. That 
arch Pagan, George Moore, who boasts that he 
has not even a grain of faith, and who, in an 
autobiographical sketch, put down as his chief 
recreation. Religion, wrote a long novel on the 
life of Christ; and although it is filled with 
sacrilege, it exhibits the sway over his heart 
and mind held by the greatest Personality in 
history. He found he could not escape from 
the Son of Man, and wrote this book to reHeve 
his own mind, as old Burton wrote a treatise on 



20 Reading the Bible 

melancholy to cure himself of it. Finally, the 
wittiest iconoclast of our day, Bernard Shaw, 
in the long preface to Androcles and the LioUj 
has produced a carefully-written commentary 
of one hundred and twenty-seven printed pages, 
dealing with the Gospels in turn, with Acts, and 
the life and letters of Paul. It is a marvellous 
and reverent exposition of Christ's teaching as 
he imderstands it, and we have the spectacle 
of Bernard Shaw bowing his hitherto uncon- 
quered head in the presence of the King of 
Kings. He has been reading and rereading 
the Bible with close attention; he emerges from 
its study not only fascinated by the central 
figure, but with a sincere belief that only 
through following the teachings of Jesus can 
society attain salvation. He beheves that 
Jesus knew more about human nature than 
any other person who ever Kved; that He knew 
not only our diseases, but the remedy for them. 
I am not concerned here with the truth or 
error of the reUgious interpretations respectively 
put forth by Mr. Wells, Mr. Moore, Mr. Shaw; 
but only with the plain fact that these three 
creative artists have been recently studying 
the Bible with extraordinary zeal. 



Reading the Bible 21 

The Bible contains every form of literature 
in the highest degree, except humour. The 
seriousness of the main theme — ^man's relation 
to God — and the serious cast of mind charac- 
teristic of the various writers, forbade the 
introduction of anything approaching hilarity. 
Yet there are adumbrations of humour here and 
there. In Stuart Walker's stage production, 
The Book of Joby there are a half dozen pas- 
sages or situations that arouse audible risibility. 
I wish that we were able to interpret as humor- 
ous the famous passage (Job, XXXI, 35) 
*^ behold, my desire is . . . that mine adversary 
had written a book." No worse fate could be 
wished for one's enemy, as every writer of 
books knows only too well; but although the 
verse is often quoted lightly, I fear that in the 
original there is no pleasantry. I have always 
thought that the chronicler in Acts (XII, 18) 
intended the puzzlement of the soldiers to be 
faintly humorous: ^^Now as soon as it was day, 
there was no small stir among the soldiers, 
what was become of Peter." 

It is difficult to read the following verse in 
Proverbs without smiling: '^He that blesseth 
his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the 



22 Reading the Bible 

morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.'^ 
And the world-old joke about shrewish women 
comes on the heels of the inopportune friend: 
"A continual dropping in a very rainy day and 
a contentious woman are alike." 

The pessimist who wrote Ecclesiastes ad- 
mitted that there was a time to laugh, but he 
apparently found no time for it himself. The 
Puritans had good authority for their dislike 
of laughter, and were forever citing the thorns 
crackling under the pot. Their view was well 
expressed in Proverbs — ^^Even in laughter the 
heart is sorrowful." 

I cannot recall any occasion when Our Lord 
laughed aloud; but He must have been amused 
more than once. I am sure that He wanted to 
laugh when the mother of Zebedee's children 
fatuously requested that her two sons might 
sit, one on His right hand, and one on His left, 
in the kingdom. He settled that question and 
cahned the subsequent indignation of the Ten 
with divine tact. 

Yet if there is Httle humour in the Bible, 
there is an immense amoimt of irony. The 
Psalms and the Prophetic Books abound with 
illustrations. 



Reading the Bible 23 

The Bible is full of both passion and senti- 
ment, but it has no sentimentality. It is rather 
remarkable that there is, so far as I can re- 
member, not one touch of false sentiment. In 
nearly aU old books, the pathos that drew tears 
from contemporary readers often obtains either 
smiles or yawns from later generations; but the 
scenes of sentiment in the Bible are so deeply 
founded on human nature, that they impress 
the twentieth century with as much force as in 
the time when they were written. Four su- 
preme instances, out of an imcountable number, 
may be given — illustrating the love of man to 
woman, the love of brother to brother, the love 
of man to man, and the grief of a father for a 
dead son. 

And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they 
seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had 
to her. 

In the marvellous story of Joseph and his 
brethren, when Joseph saw the lad Benjamin, 
his own brother, the situation is enough to tax 
the power of the most consummate artist; but 
the simplicity and dignity of the Bible narrative 
leave nothing to add, change, or omit. 



24 Reading the Bible 

And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your 
father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet 
alive? And they answered. Thy servant our father is 
in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down 
their heads, and made obeisance. 

And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Ben- 
jamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger 
brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, 
God be gracious unto thee, my son. 

And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn 
upon his brother; and he sought where to weep; and 
he entered into his chamber, and wept there. 

When David was informed of the death of 
Saul and Jonathan, his lament for the latter is 
imsurpassed in hterature as a tribute to the 
strength of men's friendships. 

Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their 
lives, and in their death they were not divided: they 
were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than 
lions. . . , How are the mighty fallen in the midst 
of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine 
high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother 
Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been imto me: thy 
love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 

When King David awaits the news of the 
decisive battle of the civil war, he has only one 
question for both messengers, Is the young man 



Reading the Bible 25 

Absalom safe ? Ahimaaz did not dare to tell the 
truth, when he saw where his master's interest 
centered; Cushi rephed with matchless diplo- 
matic tact, but to no avail. The king's passion 
of grief for his cruel son seemed merely an 
enigma to the two messengers, whilst to that 
seasoned fighting-hack, Joab, it seemed ridicu- 
lous and disgusting. But to us it is not only 
impressive beyond words, it reveals one of the 
qualities of the king that make us love him. 

And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man 
Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of 
my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do 
thee hurt, be as that young man is. 

And the king was much moved, and went up to the 
chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, 
thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son 
Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, 
my son, my son! 

There is no narrative style superior to that 
of the Old Testament historians. They in- 
cluded everything, both good and bad, never 
trying to make an idealised portrait. Now the 
most important thing in a king's life, both for 
himself and for the welfare of his subjects, is 
his moral character. Is it good or bad? This 



26 Reading the Bible 

statement is given first, for it deserves primacy; 
his personal appearance, physical endowments, 
accomplishments are all secondary. 

In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of 
Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began 
to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen 
years. 

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the 
Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of 
Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not 
therefrom. 

Out of these impartially written historical 
pages, where one fact soberly foUows another, 
individuals leap to life with astonishing vividity. 
Agag, going deHcately, and saying "Surely 
the bitterness of death is past''; the sprinter 
Asahel, "light of foot as a wild roe,'' who 
turned not to the right hand nor to the left 
from following Abner, and whom Abner re- 
luctantly slew pushing his spear back at him; 
Amasa, treacherously slain by Joab, "Art thou 
in health, my brother?" Many characters 
like the above, to whom only a few Hues are 
given, are nevertheless unforgettable; whilst 
the more important personages, Jehu, Ahab, 



Reading the Bible 27 

Jezebel, Joab, are as real to us as the leading 
figures in American history. 

Jonathan has been somewhat obscured by 
David, but he was the opposite of a weak 
character. He was a first-class fighting man. 
It took immense courage to defy a father like 
Saul, and let it be remembered that when 
Saul, in imgovemable passion, threw a javeUn 
at Jonathan across the dinner-table, Jonathan 
showed no fear. The history says, ^'So Jona- 
than arose from the table in fierce anger." 

As for David himself, he had many sins to 
answer for, including murder and adultery in 
their most malignant form; yet every one loves 
David, for he had a great heart. When Nathan 
stood up to him, instead of killing the bold 
prophet, he admitted his guilt; he was more 
interested in the welfare of Absalom than in 
the outcome of the rebeUion against his throne; 
his attitude toward King Saul was a model of 
loyalty and forbearance; his personal magnetism 
was so powerful that mighty men loved to 
risk their lives for him. Sometimes I think the 
finest episode in his career was when he refused 
to drink the water brought to him by the three 
champions. 



28 Reading the Bible 

And David longed, and said, Oh that one would 
give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, 
that is at the gate! And the three brake through the 
host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well 
of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and 
brought it to David; but David would not drink of it, 
but poured it out to the Lord, And said. My God for- 
bid it me, that I should do this thing; shall I drink 
the blood of these men that have put their lives in 
jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they 
brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. 

John Masefield, the English poet, in a memo- 
rable speech made in America in Jmie, 191 8, 
cited this incident as a parable. He said that 
after this great war is over, we shall feel un- 
worthy of using the freedom bought by victory; 
for our liberty will come to us through the 
sacrifice of heroes. 

And if the mature King David is splendid, 
the lyric David is one of the most radiant 
figures in history. Was there ever a finer 
description of a young athlete, than the follow- 
ing sketch of David? And remember that the 
whole account of his appearance and accom- 
plishments is compressed into a part of one 
sentence, which is itself only a part of one 
Bible verse: 



Reading the Bible 29 

Cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and 
a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely 
person, and the Lord is with him. 

This recommendation was naturally enough 
for Saul, and he sent for the young harp 
player. 

Although paraphrases of the Bible are usually 
weak — ^I once owned a book that contained 
the Gospels told in rime, heaven knows why — 
many of the masterpieces of English literature 
have been foimded directly on the Bible text. 
We need to think only of Milton's Samson 
AgonisteSy and of Browning's Saul. In Brown- 
ing, David soothes the king by playing the old 
tunes of the pasture. Saul was a cowboy; he 
was rounding up his father's herd when the 
king-hunters came after him; many times amid 
the responsibilities of the monarchy, he must 
have been homesick for the free life of the 
hills. David knew what he was about when 
he played pastoral tunes. 

The great prophets of Israel exhibited not 
only a zeal for righteousness, but plenty of 
common sense. I like the quiet way in which 
they settled minor questions. When Elisha 
was plowing, and Elijah cast his mantle on 



30 Reading the Bible 

him, the youth knew he was called to greater 
things than farm work, but he asked the man 
of God, ^^Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father 
and my mother, and then I will follow thee." 
And Elijah replied, "Go back again: for what 
have I done to thee?" 

And the matter of courtesy toward a religious 
service in which we do not believe, was settled 
once for all by Elisha. After Naaman had been 
cured of leprosy, he told Elisha that of course 
the God of Israel was the only true God, and 
he would worship Him for the rest of his life. 
But he was troubled by a matter that might be 
called religious etiquette. He is going back to 
serve his royal master the king of Syria, and 
how shall he behave in the house of Rimmon 
where the king worships? 

In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that 
when my master goeth inte the house of Rimmon to 
worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow 
myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down 
myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy 
servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in 
peace. 

Pastoral literature, which is a form by itself, 
has few good illustrations in native English, for 



Reading the Bible 31 

our pastorals from Spenser and William Browne 
down to the nineteenth century, are marred by 
artificiaUty and indeed by insipidity. I sup- 
pose the best pastorals in secular literature are 
the first, those by Theocritus. Yet even the 
SiciUan masterpieces are inferior to a specimen 
found in the Bible, the book of Ruth. This 
wonderful idyl of the farm, told in an impec- 
cable style by the old Hebrew writer, must 
forever remain supreme and unapproachable. 
The economy of words is striking; in the narra- 
tive of David's great-grandmother, there is not 
a superfluous sentence. The suppressed passion 
in this tale has been felt by all intelligent 
readers; and Keats, with his genius for beauty 
of feeling and beauty of tone, has arrested the 
lonely figure of Ruth in the grain-field, where 
she stands in immortal loveliness like the 
images on the Greek urn. 

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home, 
She stood in tears amid the alien corn. 

Epistolary literature in the New Testament 
reached its climax. There are no letters in the 
history of the pen like the letters of John, and 



32 Reading the Bible 

James, and Peter, and Paul. It would be 
diflScult to improve on James's comment on 
pure religion, or on his account of that untame- 
able creature, the tongue. Whilst the short 
letter by Jude is inferior to those written by the 
great foiu:, it contains a description of certain 
ungodly men mightily effective. 

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their o\\ti 
shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the black- 
ness of darkness forever. 

Although there are no books in the Bible 
cast in the form of a play, there are not many 
dramatic elevations in hterature loftier than 
the story of Esther, Haman, and Mordecai; of 
Samson, the strongest man in the world, easy 
prey to a woman; of Judith and Holof ernes; of 
Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth. These are pure 
drama. And in these dramas of terrific passion, 
there are natural, homely touches of surprising 
realism, that seem as if the events might have 
happened yesterday. The night when King 
Ahasuerus was wakeful, and after trying every 
expedient to induce sleep, finally did what so 
many of us did some night last week — ^he sat up 
in bed and read a book. He merely exercised 



Reading the Bible 33 

the royal prerogative, and had the book read 
to him. 

The poetry of the Old Testament — especially 
in the books Solomon's Song, Job, Psalms, 
Isaiah, — excels in every variety of poetical 
expression, ranging from pure lyrical singing to 
majestic epic harmonies. The most conven- 
tional subject for a poem is Spring, and among 
the millions of tributes to the mild air and the 
awakening earth, none is more beautiful than 
the passage in the Song of Songs. 

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my 
love, my fair one, and come away. 

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing 
of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in 
our land; 

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the 
vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, 
my love, my fair one, and come away. . . . 

My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among 
the lilies. 

Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, 
turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young 
hart upon the mountains of Bether. 

As Brov^ning began what is perhaps his greatest 
work — the Pope's speech in the Ring ami the 



34 Reading the Bible 

Book — ^with an allusion to the story in Esther, 
so, in giving the Pope's tribute to the soldier- 
saint Caponsacchi, he borrowed some poetry 
from Job. It is worth while for a moment to 
compare the original and Browning's language, 
to see what good use Browning made of his 
Biblical knowledge. 

Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? or his 
tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? 

Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his 
jaw through with a thorn? . . . 

Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou 
bind him for thy maidens? . . . 

His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a 
piece of the nether millstone. . . . 

He maketh a path to shine after him; one would 
think the deep to be hoary. ... 

He beholdeth all high things; he is a king over all 
the children of pride. 

Browning, in the Pope's speech, gives some 
advice to the teachers of young men. He bids 
them remember the strength, passion, and 
glory of youth, and not expect to tame ado- 
lescence with petty formalism, or with tiny 
devices. And suddenly the thought of Levia- 
than must have entered his mind, for the Pope 
speaks 



Reading the Bible 35 

Irregular noble 'scapegrace — son the same! 
Faulty — and peradventure ours the fault 
Who still misteach, mislead, throw hook and line, 
Thinking to land leviathan forsooth, 
Tame the scaled neck, play with him as a bird. 
And bind him for our maidens! Better bear 
The King of Pride go wantoning awhile, 
Unplagued by cord in nose and thorn in jaw, 
Through deep to deep, followed by all that shine, 
Churning the blackness hoary; He who made 
The comely terror. He shall make the sword 
To match that piece of netherstone his heart. 

If one reads the book of Psalms straight 
through, no matter how familiar many pas- 
sages may be, the glory and splendour of the 
majestic poetry will come like a fresh revela- 
tion; and if one will read the last three Psalms 
aloud, one will feel how all the hymns of sorrow, 
delight, repentance and adoration unite in one 
grand universal chorus of praise. 

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all 
deeps: Fire and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind 
fulfilling his word: 

Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 
Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl; 
Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all 
judges of the earth; 

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and chil- 



36 Reading the Bible 

dren. . . . Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his 
sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 

Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according 
to his excellent greatness. 

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise 
him with the psaltery and harp. 

Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him 
with stringed instruments and organs. 

Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon 
the high sounding cymbals. 

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. 
Praise ye the Lord. 

HandeFs Messiah is the greatest of all ora- 
torios; sometimes I think it is worth all other 
oratorios put together. Handel was an inspired 
genius. When he wrote the Hallelujah chorus, 
he said he saw the heavens opened and the Son 
of God sitting in glory, and I have no doubt he 
really did. He was fortunate in being able to 
match deathless words with sublime music. 
Much of the grandeur of his work is owing to 
the poetry, and especially to the parts taken 
from the prophet Isaiah. Passages of stem 
authority alternate with ineffable tenderness. 

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain 
and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be 
made straight, and the rough places plain: 



Reading the Bible 37 

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all 
flesh shall see it together: . . . 

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather 
the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, 
and shall gently lead those that are with young. 

The poetry of the Bible is not only the high- 
est poetry to be found anywhere in literature, 
it contains the essence of all religion, so far as 
religion consists in aspiration. In this way 
Job, the Psalms, and Isaiah contain an eternal 
element of truth, that no advance in the world's 
thought can make obsolete. Through such 
poetry rather than through any formal creed, 
man is lifted into a communion with the Divine 
Spirit. For in these immortal poems, which 
express a fundamental and universal passion, 
the human soul rises to that elevation which 
brings assurance and peace. 

The Bible contains not only the finest histor- 
ical prose, and the finest lyric and epic poetry; 
in philosophy, practical wisdom, and political 
economy it is also supreme. Modem pessimism, 
even in the great artist Schopenhauer, finds 
no more beautiful expression than in the book 
of Ecclesiastes; and the ancient pessimist has 
a better key to the riddle of life than asceticism. 



38 Reading the Bible 

His conclusion of the whole matter is to fear 
God and keep His commandments. 

The political economy taught in the Gospels 
is not only better for humanity to follow as a 
practical guide, it is more deeply based on fact 
than the treatises of John Stuart Mill or any 
other classic authority. In the preface to 
Androcles and the Lion^ Bernard Shaw says 
that humanity can never solve the problems 
of society, can never arrange the social struc- 
ture properly, imtil the teaching of Jesus is 
followed. He believes that Jesus knew more 
about such things than any modem student. 
It looks to-day as though all progress was an 
attempt, naturally through much failure and 
frequent relapse, to apply the doctrines of 
Jesus Christ. And I think that in four or five 
centuries, say, in the year 2500, humanity will 
be nearer that goal than it is to-day. 

Even those who do not beheve that the 
Bible is the revelation of God, wiU admit that 
it is the supreme revelation of man. There is 
more revelation of man's weakness and strength, 
man's capacity for evil and for good, in the 
Bible than can be found in Shakespeare and 
all the dramatists of the world. It is the most 



Reading the Bible 39 

human of all books. And it is true in its de- 
piction of human nature as naturally sinful; it 
does not flatter; men are instinctively bad, and , 

therefore need not palliatives, but regeneration. 
The basest deeds of which men and women are 
capable are faithfully recorded; and the great- 
est Personality in history clearly set forth. 
Religion, in its combination of reverence and 
conduct, the attitude to God and the attitude 
to man, was understood by the old prophets; 
they had a passion for spiritual worship and a 
passion for right living. When President Eliot 
was requested by the authorities at Washington 
to select a sentence for a conspicuous place in 
the great Library, he said there was nothing in 
the history of literature more worthy than a 
pair of lines from the prophet Micah. Accord- 
ingly there they stand, as true in the twentieth 
century as when they were first uttered: 

What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, 
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 

The practical wisdom expressed in the book 
of Proverbs has not been surpassed by any of 
our modem wise men. Nor has it yet become 
stale. The wisest men to-day liaxc nothing to 



40 Reading the Bible 

add in the way of a guide to life, to this collec- 
tion of ancient Jewish wisdom, compiled from 
long observation and experience. SensuaHty 
is still a guidepost to the grave, and a soft 
answer still turns away wrath. In the midst of 
the bewildering changes not only in women^s 
garments, but in women's activities, the two- 
verse sketch in the last chapter of Proverbs 
still represents the ideal woman: 

Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall 
rejoice in time to come. 

She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her 
tongue is the law of kindness. 

But of aU the sagacity in this extraordinary 
book, the finest both in thought and expression, 
is to be found in the penultimate chapter. 
After enumerating four inexpHcable problems, 
ending charmingly with "the way of a man 
with a maid," which has been the stock subject 
of the drama and the novel for many centuries, 
the allusion to the adulterous woman seems at 
first to be an anti-climax. But a Httle reflection 
convinces us that her self-satisfaction is after 
all the most inexplicable thing in the world. 
The things which disquieted (excellent word) 



Reading the Bible 41 

the earth then, disquiet it now: the servant 
reigning, and the handmaid heir to her mistress 
are ruining Russia , and disquieting the world; 
a fool with a hearty dinner inside his carcass 
is insufferable, and an odious woman when she 
is married becomes even more offensive. Then 
follow the immortal four illustrations of wis- 
dom, imconscious examples of great ideas: the 
ants, who can their food in the summer: the 
feeble conies, who seek secure shelter; the 
locusts, who govern themselves constitution- 
ally; the ugly spider, who lives aloft in palatial 
surroundings. Good things: — ^Foresight: Se- 
curity: Cooperation: Aspiration. 

For the last sixty years, the chief intellectual 
passion of educated men and women has been 
the passion for truth. Never has truth been so 
loved, and followed with such devotion. It is 
worth remembering that in the first book of 
Esdras in the Apocrypha, this passion for truth 
was expressed in final and impressive words, 
together with a picture of other forces as true 
to-day as then, and in one aspect amazingly 
applicable to the years from i9i4toi9i8. The 
three young men who competed for the prize 
of declaring what was the strongest tiling on 



42 Reading the Bible 

earth, wrote their opinions in secret, and de- 
fended them in public. The first wrote. Wine 
is the strongest: the second, The king is the 
strongest: the third. Women are strongest: but 
above all things truth beareth away the victory. 
The man who defended the second proposition 
might easily have been referring to Kaiser 
Wilhelm II, and to the organisation of his 
forces for war, some for fighting, some for the 
conservation of food: 

If he bid them make war the one against the other, 
they do it; if he send them out against the enemies, 
they go, and break down mountains, walls, and towers. 

They slay and are slain, and transgress not the 
king's commandment; if they get the victory, they 
bring all to the king, as well the spoil, as all things else. 

Likewise for those that are no soldiers and have 
not to do with wars, but use husbandry, when they 
have reaped again that which they had sown, they 
bring it to the king, and compel one another to bring 
tribute to the king. And yet he is but one man: if 
he command to kill, they kill; if he command to spare, 
they spare; 

If he command to smite, they smite; if he command 
to make desolate, they make desolate; if he command 
to build, they build; 

If he command to cut down, they cut down; if he 
command to plant, they plant. So all his people and 



Reading the Bible 43 

his armies obey him; furthermore he lieth down, he 
eateth and drinketh, and taketh his rest: 

And these keep watch round about him, neither 
may any one depart, and do his own business, neither 
disobey they him in anything. 

Then the third youth, after a witty and piquant 
tribute to the power of women, began to speak 
of the truth. 

Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are 
wicked, and such are all their wicked works; and there 
is no truth in them; in their unrighteousness also they 
shall perish. 

As for the truth, it endure th, and is always strong; 
it liveth and conquereth forevermore. . . . 

With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards. 

Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; 
and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty 
of all ages. 

Blessed be the God of truth. 

And with that he held his peace. And all the people 
then shouted, and said. Great is truth, and mighty 
above all things. 

I would give much if I knew the tone of Pilate's 
voice, or the expression on his face, or his 
particular impelling thought, when he asked 
our Lord the question, W/iat is truth / Jesus 



44 Reading the Bible 

had just spoken of the permanent importance 
of truth. "To this end was I bom, and for this 
cause came I into the world, that I should bear 
witness unto the truth. Every one that is of 
the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto 
him, What is truth?" and immediately went 
out and declared that he found no fault in the 
accused person. Bacon begins his first essay 
with the words "What is Truth? said jesting 
Pilate; and would not stay for an answer." 
But I am not at all sure that Pilate was jest- 
ing; in the New Testament narrative, Pilate's 
bearing was serious and digni&ed. The Pilate 
of the Mystery Plays was at times jocose and 
it is more than possible that Bacon had the 
stage Pilate in mind, as Shakespeare had the 
stage Herod, though I have never heard this 
explanation suggested. Martin Luther, if I 
imderstand him correctly, regarded Pilate's 
question as coming from a practical politician. 
What good is truth in an emergency like this? 
What you want is not truth; what you need is 
some practical scheme to get you out of this 
fix. It would be I suppose like the complacency 
of the "regular" candidate: you may have the 
truth on your side, but I have the delegates. 



Reading the Bible 45 

Possibly all Pilate meant was to express his 
impatience tinctured with dismay, that Jesus, 
in such a dangerous moment, should begin 
talking about an abstraction like truth. Then 
the question would simply mean. What is the 
use now of talking about truth? Pilate regarded 
Jesus as a harmless dreamer, and yet there was 
something puzzlingly impressive about Him. 
The Romans, exactly the opposite of the Rus- 
sians, were eminently practical; pure theory 
had little interest for them, and to discuss 
an abstract question was at best a waste of 
time. 

Some one has profanely remarked that even 
God Himself could not answer Pilate's ques- 
tion. At all events, it remained unanswered, 
and the answer would have been as incompre- 
hensible to Pilate as the kingship of the speaker. 

The scene is one of the most dramatic in 
literature. The powerful Roman official, with 
the whole force of the Empire behind him, is 
confronted by a quiet figure, unaggressive but 
un terrified, the only serene person in the hall. 
The words of our Lord are a divine echo of the 
famous testimony of the young man in the 
Book of Esdras. 



46 Reading the Bible 

As for the truth, it endure th, and is always strong: 
it liveth and conquereth forevermore. 

With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards. 

Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; 
and she is the strength, kingdom, power and majesty of 
all ages. 

The impotence of physical force to destroy 
truth has been proved many times, but it is a 
fact always impressive in retrospect. History 
is full of dramatic contrasts. After reading 
the scurrilous attacks made by Aristophanes 
on Socrates, one cannot help thinking to-day 
that the figure of the dramatist, piteously 
begging the Athenians for the prize, contrasts 
harshly with the soHtary grandeur of Socrates 
standmg before his accusers, perfectly calm in 
the contemplation of the grave. And the con- 
trast between the friendless prisoner and the 
mighty Roman, who imagined he had final 
power over Him, imposes itseK on every one 
who reads the Gospel narrative. I came into 
the world to bear witness imto the truth. This 
is God's world, not the Roman's nor the Jew's; 
He rules it. I die on the cross; but truth, 
honour, morality do not die; my death is a wit- 
ness for all time to the supremacy of Truth. 



n 

ST. PAUL AS A LETTER-WRITER 

THE fact that I have never studied theology 
or New Testament interpretation gives 
me a possible advantage in the darkness of 
ignorance. In one of the stories of Captain 
Marryat, an untrained man was compelled to 
fight a duel with swords against a trained 
opponent; his skillful antagonist, expecting the 
usual formal thrust and parry, was killed on 
the first lunge. So, in grasping the sword of the 
Spirit, I find myself unhampered by any theo- 
logical or textual code. No one regrets my 
lack of learning more than I; but my method 
at all events has the advantage of simplicity. 
I shall take up the letters of Paul as I take up 
the letters of Emerson, and read them as ex- 
amples of epistolary literature. I have no 
theory to establish and no systematic doctrine. 
At what date each letter was written, what 
corruptions if any have corroded the text, 
whether Paul wrote all or only some of them, 

47 



48 Reading the Bible 

are for the moment questions of minor impor- 
tance; what we know for certain is that we have 
before us, in the incomparable English of 1611, 
a collection of letters which discuss everything 
of human interest from God to overcoats, 
which reveal a brilliant, passionate personality, 
and which have had a prodigious ejffect on the 
development of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

Dante, Milton, Bunyan have each and all 
helped to shape our conceptions of God, of the 
future, of sin and salvation; but the formative 
influence of Paul's letters has been and still is 
greater than that of these three writers com- 
bined. Paul arrived exactly on time to aid in 
the spread of the Christian religion; for he was 
both a philosopher and a man of action. He 
was a profound thinker and a persuasive advo- 
cate. He was devoted to introspection and 
liked to travel. His love of metaphysics did 
not prevent him from being a successful advance 
agent of Christianity, carrying with him every- 
where an excellent sample of the article he 
wished to distribute. His letters are full of 
pure and appKed religion. He deals especially 
with the practical problems that confront 
young students — the temptations of the mind 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 49 

and the temptations of the body. He has been 
well called the ^^ college man's apostle." 

The year of his birth is not known, but he 
was probably about the same age as Jesus, for 
at the stoning of Stephen, he is called a young 
man. That might mean anything from seven- 
teen to thirty-five. The rather important role 
he played in persecutions would seem to indi- 
cate manhood. On the other hand, the fact 
that at the murder of Stephen he took care of 
the clothes, just as small boys to-day hold coats 
for their big brothers, would indicate youth; 
and his zeal in persecution would harmonise 
with mental immaturity. I like to think of him 
as younger than Jesus, and I think of Jesus as 
forever young. 

Paul was bom at Tarsus, in Cilicia, in Asia 
Minor. It was a city of importance, both for 
its commercial industry and for its learning. 
Paul has every mark of being city bred; there 
is nothing provincial about his way of thought. 
The union in Tarsus of Greek culture with 
Yankee enterprise was typical of Paul's own 
temperament. His father was a Jew, and 
belonged to the narrowest sect of the Pharisees, 
so that probably Paul was educated as sternly 



QsOKkS^Ouu^ \iM}(X>^^^ 



50 Reading the Bible 

and strictly as our Puritan ancestors in New 
England. In austerity and alertness, he was a 
combination of Jonathan Edwards and Ben- 
jamin Franklin. His father was a Roman 
citizen; and so Paul was a free-bom Roman as 
well as a Jew, a privilege which gave him ^. 
tnmip card in the game of life. 

He seems to have made a journey to Jerusa- 
lem, with the intention of becoming a Rabbi; 
and in order to maintain himself while study- 
ing — analogous to the modem custom of work- 
ing one's way through college — ^he learned the 
trade of a tent-maker, at which he turned many 
an honest penny in later years. Thus early he 
displayed the passion for righteousness and the 
passion for business characteristic of his race. 

Jerusalem was the centre of Jewish learning; 
and the ambitious boy was fortunate in study- 
ing under a famous professor, Gamaliel. Al- 
though this wise man had a reputation for 
tolerance, Paul became a narrow and bitter 
Jewish partisan. Yet as every good teacher 
sows seed that sometimes comes to fruition 
only after many years, who knows but that in 
the marvellous words of Paul on Charity, we 
behold the green leaves of old Gamaliel? 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 51 

The curriculum, like that of Oxford and 
Cambridge in the eighteenth century, was not 
broad, but it was decidedly intensive. It knew 
little of the elective system. It consisted of a 
study of the Old Testament, with commentaries 
thereupon. Paul obtained a sound and accu- 
rate knowledge of the Scriptures, which he 
turned to account in his later work among the 
Jews. His Letters abound in Biblical quota- 
tions. 

Paul was graduated from Jerusalem a zealous, 
learned Jew. What does this mean? It means 
that he believed the only way to righteousness 
was to keep in detail the Jewish law; not only 
its moral precepts, but its technical formalities. 
This explains why Paul was so bitter against 
the dead Jesus and His followers. Like an 
orthodox party man in church and politics, he 
viewed with alarm the teachings of the disciples 
of Jesus, for he believed them to be not only 
heretical, but subversive, revolutionary. And 
his instinct, whether commendable or not, was 
correct; they were exactly what he thought 
they were, irreconcilable with the religious and 
social order in which he was brought up. A 
cardinal idea in the teachings of Jesus is that 



52 Reading the Bible 

righteousness is a matter of the heart; forms 
and ceremonies are relatively unimportant. 
The coolness \\dth which the greatest Demo- 
crat of all time jettisoned the cargo of orthodox 
ordinances caused priests to hold up their 
hands in horror. Paul was convinced that 
the Christian sect must be exterminated; and 
he gazed admiringly at the torture of Stephen, 
feeling certain of the approval of Jehovah. 

While seeking fresh worlds to conquer, he 
learned that the Christian disease had broken 
out in Damascus; he obtained credentials 
from the high priest, and started for that city, 
his object being to arrest and carry to Jeru- 
salem all the criminals he could catch. When 
he came near Damascus, he saw a great hght, 
and was converted. From the Christian point 
of \dew, what happened to him was natural 
enough; man does not always seek God, but God 
is forever seeking man, the sole object of the 
appearance of Christ on earth. The Hound of 
Heaven was on his trail, and caught him on the 
broad road to disaster. 

Paul was not the man to do anything by 
halves. As soon as he was baptised, he became 
active, beginning with his neighbours in Damas- 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 53 

cus, preaching for the new cause with the old 
vigour. The Jews naturally regarded him as a 
traitor, the inevitable fate of one who changes 
his convictions on any question of general 
concern. He escaped to Jerusalem, and had to 
escape from it. After his flight, he went back 
to his native town and stayed there for years. 
He seems to have lived quietly, but was evi- 
dently not forgotten, because Barnabas came 
after him, brought him to Antioch, and there 
the two friends worked together for twelve 
months. 

Antioch was a large and famous city, and the 
new faith took such hold there that the disci- 
ples in this place were first called Christians. 

Paul now went on a missionary journey, 
with Barnabas. He meant to work mainly 
among the Jews, but he received such cold 
treatment that he turned more and more to 
others, and thus after this journey he became 
the great apostle to the Gentiles. When the 
two men started out, it was Barnabas and 
Paul; when they returned, it was Paul and 
Barnabas. Paul's supremacy as a Christian 
preacher has never been challenged from that 
day to this. 



54 Reading the Bible 

Not only were many individuals converted 
to Christianity, but churches were founded; 
and by visiting them again on the way home, 
Paul succeeded in establishing them more 
firmly. On the second missionary journey, 
Paul went over into Europe, planting the faith 
in Western civilisation. The result of this 
expedition exceeded his wildest dreams, for he 
actually changed the currents of Western 
thought, and we are all different to-day from 
what we should have been had he restricted 
his wanderings. It was on this trip that he 
met Dr. Luke, and thus we get our accoimt of 
Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. Obtaining 
little success with either the Jews or the edu- 
cated Athenians, he came more and more into 
contact with the poor and lowly Gentiles, 
giving him much valuable training in clear 
exposition, and in knowledge of human nature. 

Paul's lack of success with the cultivated 
Greeks is only what might have been expected. 
Browning has dramatically voiced it in the 
poem Cleon. The intellectual poet is vexed at 
the king's curiosity about an itinerant pedlar 
of religion. Yet though Cleon's armour of 
culture is impenetrable, he is a witness to the 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 55 

rising tide of Christianity, making its way 
among the downtrodden and oppressed. 

Thou canst not think a mere barbarian Jew 

As Paulus proves to be, one circumcised, 

Hath access to a secret shut from us? 

Thou wrongest our philosophy, O King, 

In stooping to inquire of such an one. 

As if his answer could impose at all! 

He \\Titeth, doth he? Well, and he may WTite. 

Oh, the Jew findeth scholars! certain slaves 

Who touched on this same isle, preached him and Christ ; 

And (as I gathered from a bystander) 

Their doctrine could be held by no sane man. 

During the second missionary journey, Paul 
wrote the two letters to the Thessalonians, 
which were probably composed at Corinth. 

His third missionary journey included a 
fifth visit to Jerusalem. At Ephesus, the me- 
tropolis of Asia Minor, Paul remained three 
years, fighting Paganism. Here he met the 
orator ApoUos, who was one of the disciples of 
John the Baptist; and whose \igour in preaching 
showed that John's influence had not been cut 
off so easily as his head. The ditTercnce be- 
tween the eloquence of Apollos and the elo- 
quence of Paul was the same that, according to 



56 Reading the Bible 

Mommsen, separated the eloquence of Cicero 
from the eloquence of Caesar. That of the 
former was characterised by rounded periods; 
that of the latter, by deeply-felt thought. 

On his third journey Paul seems to have 
written the two letters to the Corinthians, the 
letter to the Galatians, and to the Romans. 

Why he undertook the fifth journey to Jeru- 
salem with such eagerness we hardly know. 
He had collected some money for the poor 
there, and perhaps wished to distribute it in 
person. Nearly sixty years old, worn out with 
almost incredible hardships, he met with 
prophets of evil along the road, who vainly 
tried to dissuade him from his purpose. He 
reached Jerusalem at the Feast of the Pentecost, 
a time when crowds of Jews had flocked to the 
Holy City. Excitement was running high; 
many of the pilgrims came from places where 
they had heard the new evangelist, and when 
they saw him in Jerusalem, their anger knew 
no bounds. Paul could not reasonably com- 
plain of their treatment; for that was just 
the method he had used with seditious 
Christians. 

In Cesarea Paul remained two years in cap- 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 57 

tivity, one of the best things that ever happened 
to him. He needed rest, and the only way he 
could get it was by going to jail. During this 
enforced idleness, his mind was active, as sub- 
sequent letters show. He might have been set 
at liberty at once, for Felix the Roman knew 
well enough that Paul was no criminal. Prob- 
ably Felix hoped that a bribe would be offered, 
but Paul was not the kind of man to buy his 
way out of prison. If he had not been a Roman 
citizen, he would have been treated more 
harshly. His Jewish enemies watched him as 
a cat would watch a mouse in a cage. As soon 
as Felix was succeeded by Festus, they eagerly 
besought the new official to give him up. But 
Paul appealed to Caesar, which left nothing for 
Festus to do but to send him to Rome. Paul 
had always wanted to go to Rome, and here 
was a chance to travel thither at the expense 
of the state. 

It is interesting to remember what excellent 
and fair-minded Roman officials appear in the 
New Testament. Pilate displayed considerable 
wisdom and courage; Gallio refused to bother 
himself with sectarian controversies, being en- 
gaged in the business of governing the people, 



58 Reading the Bible 

and having no time for petty affairs; Felix, 
Festus, and Lysias were sensible and humane. 

Ejng Agrippa, in whose presence Paul was 
tried, was what Bernard Shaw would call a 
rubber-stamp King; an empty title, for he had 
httle power, and even his thinking was done 
for him, as is still the fortunate custom in 
constitutional monarchies. This was no ju- 
dicial trial, but rather a parlour performance, 
which Festus arranged for the entertainment 
of his guest. 

At Rome Paul remained two years, living in 
practical freedom, although accompanied al- 
ways by one soldier, who, I dare say, was often 
an agreeable companion. He preached and 
conversed, making many conquests among the 
Gentiles, among the Roman soldiers who 
guarded him, and even among Caesar's hpuse- 
hold. He lived in his own hired house, and 
seems to have passed his days in cheerful 
activity. What became of him after this ex- 
perience, nobody knows. 

Every now and then the course of literatiu-e 
is disturbed by the appearance of a man who 
is something more and something greater than 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 59 

a literary artist; some one is bom who feels 
within him the voice of a prophetic mission. 
Such a person was Socrates: such a person was 
Thomas Carlyle. These men exert an influence 
on the history of thought merely by opening 
their mouths and talking. So great a master 
of oral speech was Carlyle that I feel sure that 
with a gifted amanuensis, he could have af- 
fected the modem world deeply had he never 
put pen to paper. Socrates talked to a few 
friends in Athens and people of all nations still 
listen to him eagerly. The supreme illustra- 
tion is our Lord, whose brief addresses and 
intimate conversations have changed the history 
of the world. Everything must have a begin- 
ning; and the Christian religion began in the 
word made flesh and remade into the living 
word. Paul relied on oratory so long as the 
Church remained within narrow geograpliical 
limits; but when, owing to his various jour- 
neys, the new faith spread far and wide, 
he was naturally forced into epistolary ac- 
tivity. 

No letters have ever been so influential as 
these; for although they were written to par- 
ticular groups at particular times and for 



6o Reading the Bible 

particular reasons, thousands and thousands 
of men and women in the twentieth century 
read them as if they were addressed directly to 
themselves. 

In everything except length, these letters 
are more like letters of to-day than Hke the 
polished Hterary efforts of the eighteenth 
century. Gray, Walpole, Cowper wrote famil- 
iar epistles in beautifully elaborate English, 
and often with conscious rhetorical effort; 
to-day, as some one has said, we do not write 
letters, we write only telegrams. Very few 
business or personal letters show any care for 
mere style; even the many letters written to 
the newspapers show less interest in the art of 
phrasing than the private correspondence of 
our New England forefathers. 

It is often said that cheap postage is the 
cause of the degeneration of epistolary style; 
but it is not cheap postage, it is rather the lack 
of time that makes it difficult to write a good 
letter. The reason why journalism is a syno- 
nym for bad vmting is not because the journal- 
ists do not know how to write, it is because they 
never have time to consider their sentences; 
hence they dress thought in ready-made clothes, 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 6i 

like '^all was bustle and confusion/' "dull, 
sickening thud/' and that familiar headline 

X LAUDS Y 

containing a verb one never hears and seldom 
sees outside of the newspapers. It is an inter- 
esting fact that just as the invention of labour- 
saving machinery meant the employment of 
more men in production instead of less, so the 
invention of time-saving devices always leaves 
those who use them with less leisure than 
before. Man has never been so busy as he is 
now, when he talks through a telephone, dic- 
tates to a stenographer, and travels in an 
automobile. 

Paul's Uterary style, except at moments of 
exaltation, lacks grace and finish; it is clumsy, 
involved, twisted. Sometimes it winds itself 
up in many folds, like a boa constrictor; some- 
times it is as brittle as a Western Union night 
letter. These faults must be charged to him, 
and not to his English translators; the original 
loses nothing in the version of 1611. 

Paul was too busy to spend much time on 
the style of these epistles; they were written at 
various places, in moments snatched from days 



62 Reading the Bible 

and nights of chronic activity. Possibly when 
he wrote ^'The night is far spent, the day is at 
hand/' the actual dawn was breaking, and from 
the streets sounded the songs of home-going 
dnmken revellers. They are offhand and im- 
promptu, composed under the exigency of some 
crisis in the particular church he was try- 
ing to strengthen in the new faith. His cus- 
tom was to dictate, and then when he signed 
his name, to add a few words in his own writing. 
The letters form no distinct body of articulated 
doctrine; the theologians who came after him 
tried with more or less success to codify his 
rules. Paul evidently meant to settle special 
cases as they came up — and he settled them 
all, not by the old laws, but by the new idea of 
universal love. 

What his style loses in finish and grace, it 
gains in vivacity and vigour. The style has 
behind it the impelling force of white-hot 
sincerity. Occasionally it rises to vertiginous 
heights. What are now called the thirteentUl 
and the fifteenth chapters of the first letter to/ 
the Corinthians are peaks of such lofty grandeur | 
that they tower above everything else in the ? 
world's Hterature except the actual words of { 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 63 

Jesus in the Gospels. The eminence of Jesus 
in literary art is as unique as his eminence in 
morality. 

After one has read all the letters of Paul, the 
character of the writer appears with clearness. 
Although he adapted each letter to the partic- 
ular needs of the recipients, the letters taken 
together reveal a portrait vivid enough to 
arouse the envy of John Sargent. We get a 
better idea of the true nature of the apostle 
from these letters than we do from the account 
in the Acts written by Luke, and the doctor was 
an excellent chronicler. Schopenhauer said 
that we can obtain a more accurate conception 
of the character of a man by reading one of his 
letters than we can from a personal interview. 
Most men in Schopenhauer's day wore beards; 
and the great pessimist said the beard was 
intended by nature to conceal the mouth, the 
one feature of the face that betrayed the inten- 
tions of its owner. He added that with women 
beards were unnecessary; for with them, dis- 
simulation was inborn. 

The first letter to the Thessalonians was 
written at Corinth, during the second mission- 
ary journey, and perhaps either in the year 50 



64 Reading the Bible 

or 52. Thessalonica, or as it is more tragically 
known in the twentieth century, Saloniki, had 
been visited by Paul just before he made his 
visit to Athens and Corinth. In this latter 
city Silas and Timothy came to see him, bring- 
ing the latest news from Thessalonica; and he 
was prompted therefore to write the earliest of 
his letters which have come down to us. The 
second letter was probably written a few 
months after the first, while Paul was still at 
Corinth. He wrote it to correct some misimder- 
standings that had been caused by the preced- 
ing epistle, chiefly with regard to the Second 
Advent. 

At that time Greece was divided into two 
parts — Macedonia and Achaia. Thessalonica 
was the capital and chief city of Macedonia. 
It was a highly important town, and partic- 
ularly important then and now, as a seaport. 
One of the chief manufactures was and is the 
making of goat's-hair cloth. This enabled 
Paul to find steady employment during his 
sojourn there. 

He begins the letter in his usual diplomatic 
fashion by congratulating them heartily on the 
excellence of their work, for which he thanks 



1, 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 65 ' 

God. He exhorts them to refra jn from sensu- 
ality, and to become good citizens; and then 
he speaks of the second coming of Christ, 
warning them to be ever on guard, like faithful 
sentinels. The all but universal antipathy to 
hard work caused the Thessalonians to argue, 
that if Christ was coming again so soon, there 
was no particular reason for industry of any 
sort; and a second letter became necessary, in 
which he told them not to be weary in well 
doing. After he had finished dictating the 
letter, he added in his own writing. 

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which 
is the token in every epistle: so I write. The grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 

The Thessalonians were not the only people 
who used the imminence of the second coming 
as an excuse for shirking work. During the 
famous Dark Day in Connecticut, May 19, 
1780, a group of legislators were assembled in 
Hartford, to transact business for the Common- 
wealth. When the darkness deepened, most 
of the statesmen were terrified, and some fell 
on their knees. I have always admired one 
man, who spoke out loud and bold, saying, 



6G Reading the Bible 

^^This is either the second coming of Christ or 
it is not; if it is not, we are all making fools out 
of ourselves. If it is, the Lord cannot find us 
in any better attitude than attending to the 
work for which we are here. I move that the 
candles be brought in, and that we proceed to 
business." 

The two letters to the Corinthians were 
probably written during the third missionary 
journey, in 57 or 58 or possibly earlier. The 
first he wrote at Ephesus, the second at Phil- 
ippi or in some part of Macedonia. Only a 
few months came between the two, and there 
is apparently a third letter which is lost. As 
we have seen, Paul was at Corinth some five 
years previous to the composition of these 
epistles. In 57 and 58 he was at Ephesus, 
where he was visited by a deputation from 
Corinth, bringing him news from the local 
church; and he sent a letter back with them. 
In the missing letter, he had made a severe 
attack on sensuahty, the besetting sin of Cor- 
inth, as everyone knows. This sin had actually 
been made a form of worship, and the church 
needed some rather emphatic language from 
Paul on the subject, and got it. 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 67 

One of the most interesting things in this 
great letter is the picture it gives of the apos- 
toHc church, often held up by zealots as a 
model for twentieth-century imitation. This 
early church was no Paradise, and if it existed 
in New York to-day, would probably be sup- 
pressed by the poUce. Some of the church- 
members Uved openly dissolute lives; they 
fought each other in the courts; they were 
quarrelsome, lustful, avaricious, and glutton- 
ous; misunderstanding the institution of the 
Lord's Supper, some of them got drunk at the 
Communion table. Nous avons change tout 
cela, and still there is room for improvement. 

Those of us who, like myself, are sore dis- 
tressed by the weaknesses and imperfections 
of the modem Church of Christ, and still more 
by its lack of the qualities of leadership in the 
world's social organisation, ought to remember 
that although the Founder of Christianity was 
divine, the Church is neither more nor less than 
human. It is as human as a political party. 
It is the result of human effort to follow and 
imitate a Divine Example, and is naturally 
therefore far from ideal. It contains, like any 
political combination, men and women of the 



68 Reading the Bible 

highest type, and also some that help to dis- 
grace it in the eyes of outsiders. If the majority 
of its members were not better than the average 
of those without its pale, and if its influence in 
society were not on the whole an elevating one, 
it would be a complete instead of a partial 
failure. But its history is inspiring. The 
Church has purged itself of many cruelties, 
sins, and folHes as it has climbed upward 
through the centuries. Yet to-day it is true to 
say that the organisation still needs the teach- 
ings of Jesus and the letters of Paul; and the 
best thing about it is that both Jesus and Paul 
find in the hearts of priests, ministers, and 
lay-workers a more immediate response than 
in any other group of men or women. As 
Browning says, 

This it is to have to do 
With honest hearts: they easily may err, 
But in the main they wish well to the truth. 
You are Christians; somehow, no one ever plucked 
A rag, even, from the body of the Lord, 
To wear and mock with, but, despite himself, 
He looked the greater and was the better. 

We must not expect too much of the Church. 
When we remember that the teachings of its 



Vc 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 69 

Founder and Chief Apostle are directly opposed V^^^-*^*^ 
to .hmnainnstmct s^ wonder is that any real "^ * ^^ 
progress has been made. And I believe that in 
some thousands of years the Christians may be 
in the majority instead of in their present 
minority. 

The Corinthian Church submitted all sorts 
of questions to Paul as referee. How about 
marriage — the gift of tongues (I imagine there 
were many fakers) — the position of women — 
the relations of church-members with out- 
siders? It needed not only wisdom on Paul's 
part to settle these disputed points, it required 
some patience; and I suspect he wrote the 
famous words on Charity as much to help 
himself as for those who were just learning to 
walk in the new and difficult road. After a 
careful explanation of the situation, together 
with a persuasive plea for hearty cooperation 
in which he used the metaphor of the human 
body, he said he would show them a more 
excellent way. This way is not the way of the 
law; it is not based on a system of rules, or 
petty prohibitions; it is the way of the Gospel, 
the way of affectionate sympathy. It is a pity 
that the nineteenth-century revisers changed 



7o Reading the Bible 

the old seventeenth-century word charity into 
the too general word love. They changed it 
because "charity'^ had come commonly to 
mean cheque-signing. For what Paul meant is 
clearly the necessity of charity for the minds 
of others, for their points of view, for their 
weaknesses, and misunderstandings. If we 
have this divine gift of charity, we shall have 
the key to human nature and the key to the 
rehgious life; we shall have the greatest thing 
in the world. As Henry Drummond used to 
say, it is significant that the thirteenth chapter 
of First Corinthians, was written, not by John, 
but by Paul. It gains in eloquence, it gains in 
intensity, by being the reasoned view of a man 
who had originally little of this article of charity 
in his nature, and who owed all he had to the 
grace of God. It was his experience of human- 
ity that taught him the overwhelming necessity 
of this virtue. 

What a pity that our Puritan ancestors, who 
exhibited so bravely the sterner sides of the 
Christian faith, never agreed with Paul that 
Charity was greater than either faith or hope! 
It would have saved their own souls — ^which in 
many cases acutely needed the remedy they so 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 71 

earnestly advertised — and it would have made 
their reverberating pulpit oratory resemble 
something other than sounding brass. 

After advising the Corinthians to insist on 
decency and order — two things of which they 
had only an elementary conception — Paul 
suddenly rises to the heights of sublimity in 
speaking of the resurrection of Christ, and of 
our assured victory over death and the grave. 
A party in the church, under the influence of 
Greek teaching, had denied the Resurrection, 
even as some ministers deny it now. Paul 
showed that it was the fundamental basis of 
the Christian faith; without it, we are of all 
men most miserable, not because the Christian 
life is valuable only for its future reward, but 
because we should all have been gulled; and 
there is perhaps no man on earth more pitiable 
than one who is deluded. 

To affirm no resurrection of the dead, wrote 
Paul, is to deny Christ's resurrection, and thus 
to destroy the edifice of Christianity. Gnostic 
speculation grew like a fungus around the 
trunk of the tree of faith; starting with the 
idea that matter had always evil in it, the 
Gnostics claimed that if the body rises again, 



72 Reading the Bible 

it must still contain evil. Paul is replying to 
these objections in his remark about the spirit- 
ual body. He appeals also to the witnesses 
that actually saw Christ. All that he says is 
still persuasive, still eloquent, except his argu- 
ment, "what shall they do which are baptised 
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why 
are they then baptised for the dead?'^ It is to 
be hoped that this point seemed more impor- 
tant to Corinthians than it does to Americans; 
there then prevailed in the Corinthian church 
the curious, and as it seems to me, silly custom 
of baptising living persons for some who had 
died without baptism. Paul seems to have 
believed in the efiScacy of this superstitious 
rite. 

It is important to understand the meaning 
of the word mystery in the phrase, "Behold, I 
shew you a mystery. '^ In the seventeenth 
century this word often meant secret^ — ^and 
what Paul is saying is not "I am about to 
exhibit some hocus-pocus," but rather, as we 
say to an expectant child, "I'll tell you a 
secret." 

The conclusion, as always with Paul, is 
practical rather than mystical. Don't let 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 73 



Greek philosophy and paganilm'unsettle your 
minds. Have soKd convictions. Jlemain stead- 
fast. Keep busy. 

It is a good thing for thfe early churches that 
they had for leader one who was not only a 
man of God but a man of sense. What would 
have become of them if they had had as their 
spiritual adviser somebody like A. Bronson 
Alcott? Or the monk Rasputin? Think what 
a following Rasputin would have had in Cor- 
inth! 

The second letter to the Corinthians was 
written immediately after meeting Titus in 
Macedonia, who brought him the latest news 
from Corinth. This letter is a hot defense 
against accusations that a faction in the 
church had made against Paul. 

No one knows where the letter to the Gala- 
tians was written, but the time seems to have 
been during the third missionary journey, per- 
haps either in 57 or 58. This letter is unique 
among his works, being written not to one 
church, but to all the churches in Galatia. On 
the second missionary journey, Paul had trav- 
eled through that countr>^, founding churches; 
on the next trip he went through Galatia again, 



74 Reading the Bible 

and became alarmed at the fickleness and 
instability of the flock. Now while he was at 
Ephesus or at Corinth — it really doesn't matter 
which — ^he received news that the Jew faction 
had nearly ruined the Galatian churches, and 
were cleverly imdermining Paul's teachings. 
This made him both alarmed and indignant, 
and he immediately dictated this fiery missive. 
It is an important letter, for its purpose — ^apart 
from relieving his mind — ^was not to give gen- 
eral advice, but to settle a fundamental ques- 
tion. Whether he settled it for the Galatians 
or not, we shall never know; but he certainly 
settled it for the general body of Christians 
from that day to this, whether they live in 
Cape Town or in Michigan. This letter there- 
fore may be considered epoch-making in the 
development of Christianity — ^both in theory 
and in practice. The question was the same 
one that made trouble for Paul on his previous 
journeys and in all his early preaching. Should 
Gentiles who became converted be compelled 
to conform to the Jewish law, including cir- 
cumcision and other details? Three different 
views were held: the Judaistic party insisted on 
the strictest conformation; the regular apostles 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 75 

took a middle course, following the law them- 
selves, but not compelling the Gentiles to do 
so; Paul, who always belonged to the extreme 
left, insisted that the law was of no consequence 
whatever; believing in Christ fulfilled the law 
and hence made it obsolete. Paul's doctrine 
was so radical, so clear, and so influential that 
it ultimately enabled Thomas Carlyle to speak 
lightly of the Ten Commandments. 

The attitude of the apostle explains the 
hatred which the Hebrew party had for him, 
and their persistent efforts toward undercut- 
ting his teaching in every church founded by 
him. No sooner had the sound of his eloquence 
ceased in the new communities, than the Jews 
began their countermine. It is not necessary 
to suppose that their work was done by men 
sent from Jerusalem; the Jew faction existed 
everywhere. 

In the Galatian churches, the Jews had made 
an impression on the people chiefly by three 
arguments. First, that Paul was not a genuine 
apostle, but an unauthorised demagogue. They 
felt no more bound by him than a twentieth- 
century Episcopal bishop feels bound by the 
theology of Billy Sunday. Second, that the 



76 Reading the Bible 

Jewish Law was sacred and divine — Christ 
himseK being the Messiah, not of the Gentiles, 
but of the Jews. Third, that Paul's attitude 
toward the Law meant absolute license, the 
destruction of holiness. No doubt the Jews 
were sincere in this. 

To these three powerful arguments the letter 
to the "foolish Galatians'' was addressed. It 
is a masterpiece of force, knocking down every 
shelter his enemies erected. The epistle may 
be divided into three parts: a defense of his 
credentials, the exaltation of Christ over the 
law, a vindication of the ethical value of liberty. 
The world has yet much to learn about the 
value of this third idea, and has lately been 
engaged upon a universal war in the endeavour 
to settle it once for all. 

Paul is so excited that he forgets or neglects 
his usual custom of beginning with congratula- 
tions; contrariwise, he rebukes the church- 
members sharply, pronouncing a curse on those 
who teach any other gospel than that of Christ. 
He said he had not hesitated to rebuke Peter 
face to face for his cowardly yielding to Jewish 
public opinion. Soon he tries to carry his own 
point by a brilliant flank attack. He starts 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 77 

with the premisses of his antagonists, boldly 
claiming Abraham as a witness to his own side 
of the case, even as Lessing, in another con- 
troversy, claimed that the liberty-loving Shake- 
speare was really a better follower of Aristotle 
than the classicists who condemned him. If 
you belong to Christ, you are the true heir of 
Abraham; if you stand by the law, you are his 
bond-servant, not his free son. 

The conclusion of the letter is a magnificent 
defense of spiritual liberty. Instead of freedom 
meaning license, it creates a better character 
than can be formed by the Law. The true sons 
of Christ need no set of rules; by following Him 
they will produce the fruits of the Spirit, which 
are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, 
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control: 
with these Paul contrasts the fruits of the 
flesh, that is, the results of the condition of 
man before the truth has made him free; and 
we have an impressive but not exaggerated 
roll-call of deadly sins. 

In a bitter sarcasm, the apostle says that he 
wishes the sticklers for circumcision would go 
a little farther, and cut themselves off the 
earth. 



78 Reading the Bible 

God is greater than the moral code; in re- 
leasing ourselves from a troublesome list of 
formalities, we are more than ever bound to 
obey the great natural law of life — ^whatsoever 
a man soweth, that will he also reap. 

As usual, Paul closes the letter with a few 
words in his own writing. He is so deeply 
moved by the condition of the Galatians, re- 
garding them as bewitched, that he writes the 
postscript as it were in capitals, making even 
the shape of the words emphatic. ^^See with 
how large letters I have written unto you with 
mine own hand." And then, with that superb 
combination of spirituality and common sense, 
he brushes away forever the cobwebs of ritu- 
alism, centering all his force on the one supreme 
thing, the thing that really makes the difference 
between slavery and freedom: "for neither is 
circumcision anything, nor uncircimacision, but 
a new creature." 

The importance of the letter to the Galatians 
can hardly be overestimated; it settled forever 
what should be the essential element of Chris- 
tianity. Paul's words are needed in the twenti- 
eth century: they still form the best answer 
to those who seek salvation through elaborate 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 79 

ceremonies or through elaborate dogmas. True 
character must be formed within, springing 
from cheerful obedience to the spirit of Christ's 
teaching. 

The letter to the Romans was probably 
written in the year 58 and from Corinth, while 
he was on his third missionary journey. This 
great epistle was directed to a community that 
Paul had never seen. He had always wanted 
to go to Rome, and while at Corinth he was 
nearer to Rome than to Jerusalem. He re- 
garded Rome as the centre of the civilised 
world, and wished to conquer this citadel for 
Christ. He contemplated making a long West- 
em trip, including Spain, and wanted to make 
Rome a base of operations. His zest for Rome 
was sharpened by the fact that he was a frcc- 
bom Roman citizen. It would have interested 
him considerably could he have looked into the 
future, and beheld Rome as the centre not 
merely of civilisation, but of the Church of 
Christ. 

Phoebe, a Christian woman, was about to 
start for Rome, and she may have carried this 
letter. Paul dictated the epistle in Greek, the 
stenographer being Tertius, who naively added 



8o Reading the Bible 

a line himself. At the close there are many 
individual greetings; a long hst of names is 
given, and Tertius, not wishing to be omitted, 
inserted "I, Tertius, who write the epistle, 
salute you in the Lord." 

This letter was to prepare the Roman Church 
for Paul's coming visit; but unfortunately we 
know nothing of the condition of the organisa- 
tion, and the letter does not tell us definitely. 
Were they mainly Jews or Gentiles? We do 
not know. It is possible that the two parties 
were openly hostile, and Paul wished to unite 
them. 

The main aim of the letter is fairly clear. 
Paul, knowing that he was about to reach the 
centre of the Western world, wished to make 
evident to the Gentiles the nature of his free 
Gospel. They must understand that they had 
fully as much right to Christianity as the Jews. 
His letter is accordingly a platform of Chris- 
tianity, both in theory and practice. 

He seems to have taken more pains than 
usual in composition; writing to those whom 
he had not seen, he studied the principles of 
clearness and conciliation. The keynote is 
Justification by Faith. All, both Jews and 



St. Paul as a Letter- Writer 8i 

Gentiles, are equally justified by faith. The 
Jews may think themselves safe because they 
have the law: yet not having the law, but keep- 
ing it, is the important thing. Even in that 
there is no clean righteousness, hence Jews and 
Gentiles both stand in need of the grace of God. 
Considering Paul's rough treatment from the 
Jews, and the way they had insidiously attacked 
him in the Galatian churches, one might natu- 
rally expect that in this letter he would furiously 
assail them. On the contrary, his tone toward 
the Jews is affectionate. His heart bleeds for 
his brethren; he even says he could wish himself 
damned for their sakes. He writes that they 
have a great natural advantage over the Gen- 
tiles, because they have been entrusted with 
the oracles of God. But the core of the letter 
is this: all men are alike condemned by the 
advent of Christ in the world, and all must have 
faith in Him to be saved. 

Have Paul's ideas undergone a process of 
development? Yes. He says little about the 
second coming, which occupied so much space 
in the letters to the Thessalonians. The seventh 
and eighth chapters reveal his amazing skill 
as an expounder of the theory of sin and re- 



82 Reading the Bible 

demption; the twelfth chapter reveals him as 
a master-guide toward the elevation of daily 
conduct. 

Whatever may be thought of Paul's knowl- 
edge of the nature of Christ, there can be no 
doubt of his profound acquaintance with the 
nature of man. Every man, woman, and child 
will find the seventh chapter an accurate mirror 
of the human heart. When Faust told Wagner 
that he had two souls within him, one Hfting 
him aloft and the other dragging him down, 
he was simply making a poetic paraphrase of 
the immortal analysis by Paul. The following 
words might serve as a truthful autobiography 
for anybody: ^^What I would, that do I not: 
but what I hate, that do I." It is just as certain 
that the human mind recognises Truth, Beauty, 
and Goodness as desirable goals, as it is certain 
that the instincts of human nature pull in the 
opposite directions. 

The four letters to the Phihppians, to the 
Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, 
are sometimes called the Prison Epistles, be- 
cause it is thought that they were written while 
Paul was imder detention at Rome. His im- 
prisonment there probably lasted from 62 to 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 83 

64. Paul had visited Philippi during the second 
missionary journey in 51-54. It was the first 
city in Europe in which he preached, and 
although he had been persecuted, his work was 
highly successful. This was where Paul and 
Silas were jailed, and their conduct during the 
earthquake — ^like that of the Salvation Army 
on the sinking steamer — caused some immediate 
conversions. Philippi was then a Roman city: 
hence the famous remark by the writer, ^^Our 
citizenship is in Heaven." Paul's Uvely inter- 
est in this church had been quickened by a 
personal tribute. The members made up a 
collection of money and gifts for Paul, and sent 
them to him by Epaphroditus. Any loving 
remembrance touched Paul deeply — for he 
had plenty of the other kind — and immediately 
upon the receipt of the presents he composed 
this letter. He lays no particular stress on any 
doctrinal or ethical point — a wide difference 
from the letter to the Galatians. Of all the 
epistles, this is the most affectionate, the most 
letter-like. He simply thanks them, talks over 
affairs in general, and gives such ad\dce as 
happens to rise to the surface of his mind. This 
is one reason why the style is so disconnected 



84 Reading the Bible 

and so human. The keynote is Joy. He says 
tranquilly that the presents are most acceptable, 
and adds, ^'not that I speak in respect of want; 
for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, 
to be content.^' 

The church at Colossae, a town in South- 
em Phrygia, southeast of Ephesus, Paul 
had never seen. A new heresy was poisoning 
the members — a combination of Judaism and 
Gnosticism. The object of the letter was to 
fight this peril. As we might guess from its 
name, Gnosticism taught the supremacy of 
Knowledge. Faith will do well enough for 
children, invalids, and old ladies, but the intel- 
ligentsia need only science. In this sense 
Bazarov, Turgenev's nihilistic hero, was a 
Gnostic. Like all philosophers, they concerned 
themselves with the problem of evil, because 
evil is the most evident fact of all the facts in 
the world. They tried to relieve God of the 
responsibility for it, like some later philoso- 
phers; God could not therefore have immedi- 
ately created the world. They thus propoimded 
the following theory, and let it always be 
remembered that no one can invent a theory 
so absurd but that some can be found who 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 85 

will believe it. I do not know which is the 
easier — to propound an absurdity, or to secure 
disciples for it. The Gnostic idea was that 
God produced one being, that another, and so 
on until the divine ingredient, becoming con- 
stantly weaker by dilution, like Puritanism in 
the New England twentieth-century blood, 
could scarcely be detected at all. Then one of 
these emanations was base enough to connect 
with matter and create the world. Thus there 
was a graduated series of Beings between God 
and the World; which gave the philosophers 
the welcome task of arranging a systematic 
hierarchy of angels. The origin of evil is not 
in man, but in matter; and as a necessary 
result, the way of salvation was through com- 
plete asceticism. 

Mingled with this Gnosticism at Colossie 
was Judaism, with all its ritual of laws, feasts, 
Sabbaths and other restrictions. News of these 
difficulties came to Paul. Apparently he first 
wrote a letter to Laodicea which has been lost, 
and then this one to the Colossians. His style, 
except for one grand outburst, is confused, 
possibly for two reasons. He is not very well 
up in Gnosticism, and he has never seen the 



86 Reading the Bible 

people he is addressing. At the end of the 
letter he wrote in his own hand 

Remember my bonds. 

The letter to Philemon is the only one written 
to an individual on a private matter. This is 
no church affair. It is exactly such a letter as 
one man would write to another on business. 
Perhaps Paul wrote other similar letters which 
are lost. This one shows the apostle in a nat- 
ural, intimate vein. Onesimus, the slave of 
Philemon, had run away, and, in leaving his 
master, like Jessica, he had taken care not to 
depart empty-handed. Escaping to Rome, he 
had been attracted by Paul's teaching, had 
become converted, and apparently wished to 
do the square thing. He had a dog-Hke devo- 
tion to Paul, and had evidently made himself 
useful in a thousand ways. The apostle wanted 
to keep him; but he naturally felt it was his 
duty to return him to his owner, and the whole 
letter is a tactful intercession for the slave. 
The style is marked by courtesy, refinement, 
and consideration for both master and man. 
It is needless to add that all attempts to make 
of this epistle a type of the plan of salvation 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 87 

are as absurd as to twist the passionate love 
lyrics of Solomon's Song into a symbol of 
Christ and the Church. 

The epistle to the Ephesians, like that to the 
Colossians, is a circular letter: they are com- 
panion pieces. This is addressed wholly to the 
Gentiles. The subject is Church Unity. Rec- 
oncile all difficulties — ^both theological and 
social — and get together on the basis of devotion 
to the person of Christ. Observe how steadily 
Paul has grown in breadth of view, and in 
tenderness. Instead of scolding, he pleads. 
He grew in grace to the last day of his life. 

This has sometimes been called the pro- 
foundest of his letters. He was writing to 
philosophic folk, who could understand deep 
thinking and metaphysical ideas. The style, 
like that of most philosophers, is confused and 
involved, much more so than in the letter to 
the Colossians; but it rises in a superb passage 
toward the close, where he enumerates the 
complete outfit for the Christian soldier. 

The epistles to Timothy and to Titus are 
called the Pastoral Epistles, because they were 
written to these men in their capacity as Pastors 
of Churches. Many scholars think they were 



88 Reading the Bible 

not written by Paul. Ignorant of New Testa- 
ment interpretation as I am, it would be an 
impertinence for me to express an opinion on 
this point. All I can say is, I am glad we have 
them, and I hope Paul wrote them. They were 
intended to guide Titus and Timothy in funda- 
mental matters concerning Church government. 
They differ in language from the known epistles 
of Paul; but it is possible that Paul, like some 
other writers, occasionally went outside of his 
customary vocabulary. It is difficult to fit 
them in to any known period of our apostle's 
career of which we have definite information; 
and it seems as though the Church spoken of 
here had been more completely organised than 
is supposed to have been the case in Paul's 
lifetime. 

Perhaps Paul, in a visit to the island of Crete, 
had tried to consolidate and strengthen the 
yoimg Church. He seems to have left Titus 
behind to complete this work, and the letter 
gives the necessary directions. Titus was not 
a Jew. He was a Gentile whom Paul had run 
across years before. He was a Greek, and was 
one of the first Christian converts not circum- 
cised. On Paul's memorable visit to Jerusalem, 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 89 

when the question of circumcision was to be 
settled, Paul took Titus along as an example. 

Titus seems to have had difficulties at Crete. 
The church was weak and filled with heretics 
and slackers and sensualists and scandal- 
mongers. Even one of their own prophets had 
said, ^'The Cretians are always hars, evil beasts, 
slow bellies." Paul's advice is definite and 
sensible, and contains a phrase that many who 
read the Bible only when they are sick or in 
danger, greet with recognition mingled with 
surprise. ^^Unto the pure all things are pure." 

Timothy had been intimately associated 
with Paul, and is first mentioned in the six- 
teenth chapter of the Book of the Acts. His 
mother was a Jew. She had brought up her 
son in a good knowledge of the Scriptures. 
His father was a Greek. Although addressed 
to an individual, the letters to Timothy are 
not at all private in the sense of the word which 
fits the letter to Philemon. Paul e\ddently 
meant to have his advice read to the Church. 

I confess without shame that the reason why 
I hope they were written by Paul is not because 
of their admonitions but simply because of 
their personal allusions, which bring the great 



90 Reading the Bible 

writer very close. I have always admired 
Montaigne's curiosity about the tastes and 
little peculiarities of men of genius. Winter 
was coming on; Paul was an old man, and felt 
the approaching frost in his bones. Thomas 
Gray wrote in one of his last letters, "Now I 
even tremble at an east wind.'' Paul wants 
his overcoat. "The cloke that I left at Troas 
with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with 
thee." He is not only cold, he is lonely. " Only 
Luke is with me." Perhaps Doctor Luke had 
occasion to employ his professional skill, for 
Paul writes under the shadow of death. "Take 
Mark, and bring him with thee." But above 
all, he wants to see Timothy again, and twice 
he implores him to hurry up. "Do thy dili- 
gence to come shortly unto me," and then, 
after much miscellaneous information, he writes 
again, "Do thy diHgence to come before win- 
ter." 

Instead of talking about the second coming 
of Christ, he talks about his own death, which 
he, like many other once hopeful adventists, 
finally is forced to face. But although there 
are moments of despondency and weakness in 
these last words, the trumpet blast in the 



St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 91 

presence of the angel of death is like the clear 
tone of the slughorn of Childe Roland. It is 
a noble farewell from ar. old veteran, who has 
fought a good fight; it is a valediction forbid- 
ding mourning. 



m 

SHORT STORIES IN THE BIBLE 

MUCH has been written in recent years 
about the art of the Short Story. One 
of our foremost contemporary American critics 
and men of letters, Professor Brander Mat- 
thews, in an interesting and penetrating dis- 
cussion of the subject, has differentiated this 
form sharply both from the novel and from 
^^the story that is short.'' Excellent examples 
of stories that are short are Silas Marner, Daisy 
Miller, Taras Bulba; but not one of these 
masterpieces could strictly be called a short 
story. 

Those late Victorian Britons, Stevenson and 
Kipling, who were also poets and novelists, and 
who were saturated in the Bible, approximated 
perfection in the art of the short story. When 
I first read Stevenson's Beach of Falesa, I 
seemed to hear a strange throbbing undertone, 
an inexplicable accompaniment to the flow of 
the narrative. I stopped to discover what this 

92 



Short Stories in the Bible 93 

sound might be — it was the beating of my 
heart .... Many of KipHng's short stories are 
modem illustrations of the wisdom of the Book 
of Proverbs; he is fond of Bibhcal titles, and 
his familiarity with the Scriptures appears again 
and again. 

American writers have excelled more often 
in the field of the Short Story than in any other. 
In novels, in poetry, and in drama, we are far 
behind England and the Continent; but we 
have contributed so many admirable specimens 
of the Short Story to the world's literature that 
in this department we may confidently chal- 
lenge comparison. Professor Barrett Wendell 
says that American men of letters have had a 
more conscious sense of form than the British. 
We are perhaps closer to Continental models 
than they. And in the Short Story the sense 
of form is all-important. 

The art of the Short Story seemed to come 
naturally to Americans. Washington Ir\'ing, 
our first distinctive man of letters, wrote tales 
of technical excellence. There are many pages 
in the longer works of Irving that have become 
obsolete; his pathos is thin, and his morahsing 
flat. But Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of 



94 Reading the Bible 

Sleepy Hollow are as good to-day as when first 
printed. Edgar Allan Poe has to his credit 
more than a score of masterpieces, the beauty 
of which cannot apparently be dulled by time. 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, \\ith all of Poe's origi- 
nahty and inventive power, \^Tote a long Hst 
of short fictions, founded on the depths of moral 
truth, and rising from these foundations into 
the spiritual atmosphere of the fourth dimen- 
sion. No novehst has gone more profoundly 
into the nature of sin than Hawthorne in the 
tiny sketch called Ethan Brand — in fact, I think 
a fine essay might be \^Titten by a student of 
theology on Hawthorne's conception of sin. A 
large portion of Bret Harte's work has already 
gone to limbo; but The Luck of Roaring Camp 
and The Outcasts of Poker Flat are as vi\dd and 
impressive to-day as when they first startled 
the world \\ith their poignant pathos. Henry 
James is best kno^-n for his long novels; but he 
was also a master of the Short Stor}\ In our 
own time no one has excelled the best work of 
O. Henry. He ^Tote in the twentieth-century 
vernacular; but he had the genius to combine 
an intense locahsm vvdth a universal appeal. 
If any one doubts the greatness of this 



Short Stories in the Bible 95 

American, one should reread The Furnished 
Room. 

No better Continental model for the Short 
Story can be found than the work of French 
authors; they have had an army of pupils, and 
even the mighty Russians, who are not given 
to playing the game of follow-my-leader, 
learned something here. With the single ex- 
ception of Dostoevski, all the great Russian 
writers, from Pushkin to Andreev, have prac- 
ticed successfully the art of the Short Story. 
Chekhov's productions are amazing in their 
number, and in their high level of excellence. 
Sologub's are remarkable for their condensa- 
tion, in that one respect resembUng the speci- 
mens to be found in the New Testament : some 
of them fill only a page. Tolstoi's are directly 
founded on the Gospel narrative, and his 
masterpiece. Where Love is there God is also, is 
the nearest approach in modem times to the 
incomparable parables of our Lord; just as two 
novels by Dostoevski, The Brothers Karainazov, 
and The Idiot, might fairly be taken as a Rus- 
sian expansion of the Gospel according to John. 

The Short Story must have unity, whereas 
some of the greatest novels, like Anna Kareninaj 



96 Reading the Bible 

manage to do \\ithout it. The Short Stor}' 
must be based on one event, or, as Professor 
Matthews expresses it, on a '^series of emotions 
called forth by a single situation/' The lyrical 
poems of Robert Brov^Tiing are short stories 
told in verse; he probably invented more plots 
than any other ^Miter, and it is interesting to 
recall the remark of one of the shrewdest cinema 
managers of our time, who emphatically de- 
clared, ^^ Robert Bro^Tiing is the greatest 
writer for the mo\'ies that ever lived." 

Now as the Bible excels all other books in 
poetry, in prose historical narrative, in pro- 
phetic eloquence, in philosophy, poHtical econ- 
omy, and in worldly msdom, so the finest Short 
Stories are to be found in the Bible. And these 
brief tales illustrate every phase of human 
nature. Just as I have repeatedly wished that 
I might go to the theatre and see a Shakespear- 
ean play without being famihar either with the 
plot or with the name of the author, so I heart- 
ily wish I might read for the first time the 
Bible stories, and judge them apart from the 
years of childhood training and instruction. 
An interesting and amusing illustration of the 
effect produced when these narratives salute 



Short Stories in the Bible 97 

men's ears for the first time, was given in the 
New York Times ^ January 8, 191 9. The Rt. 
Rev. John N. McCormick, Bishop of Western 
Michigan, who had been overseas in Red Cross 
Work, is quoted as follows: 

"One of the chaplains in France told me 
that although every soldier had a small New 
Testament which went into his pack, he was 
having constant demands for the whole Bible 
in Enghsh. He had scoured the country for 
Bibles and the supply was not equal to the 
demand. Finally he asked a private why he 
wanted the whole Bible. 

"^Because I want to read about the wars,' 
came the reply. ^The Old Testament is full of 
wars and I want to read those stories.' 

"When one of the transports went over last 
Spring, the Chaplain, finding a group of men 
sitting together on the deck, with nothing to 
do, began to tell them stories. He just told 
them for their brilliant value as tales. And he 
told the story of Paul's shipwreck and those 
fourteen days in a typhoon when he was mak- 
ing his famous voyage to Rome. When he had 
finished, a man called out to him: ^Wlio was 
that guy?' The story-teller replied that it was 



98 Reading the Bible 

a man named Paul. The soldier went below 
and aroused his bunkie. ^The Chaplain was 
telling us a story up on deck about a fellow 
named Paul, and he was some man/^' 

A few years ago a newspaper offered a prize 
for the best answer to the question, "Which 
is the finest short story ever written?'^ The 
prize was awarded to a well-known English 
writer, who voted for the story of the woman 
taken in sin. I find that this tale, as told in 
the Gospel by John, contains two hundred and 
five words. 

I do not think any small boy ever forgets the 
story of Jacob and Esau. Nothing rankles in 
a boy's mind like injustice, unfair treatment. 
Furthermore, in spite of the intense blood- 
affection that unites brothers — instantly shown 
when any of them is attacked by a person out- 
side the famUy — there is invariably a certain 
jealousy between two brothers of nearly the 
same age; and this jealousy is particularly sharp 
in the difficult matter of paternal distribution of 
awards. This ugly trait in human nature is the 
basis of the story of Jacob and Esau, and the 
story of the Prodigal Son. The most dangerous 
foe to parental discipline as to the discipline in 



Short Stories in the Bible 99 

a boy's school is any suspicion of favouritism; 
and when the normal boy reads the story of 
Jacob and Esau, the trick played by the mother 
for Jacob's benefit, and the cruel disappoint- 
ment of honest Esau when he arrives too late, 
the boy in his own heart identifies himself with 
the deceived huntsman — he is Esau. No 
amount of exegesis, no reminders of the his- 
torical importance of Jacob, no recital of Jacob's 
sub3equent sufferings can ever make a boy 
forget Jacob's sinister methods; Jacob from 
that time forth is a swindler, and the boy must 
look elsewhere in the Bible for a hero. Observe 
how in this tale the height of dramatic power 
is reached with severe economy of words. 

And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and 
his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called 
Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son : and 
he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, 
Behold, now, I am old, I know not the day of my 
death: now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, 
thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and 
take me some venison; and make me savoury meat, 
such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; 
that my soul may bless thee before I die. 

And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his 
son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, 



loo Reading the Bible 

and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her 
son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto 
Esau thy brother, saying. Bring me venison, and make 
me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee 
before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, 
my son, obey my voice according to that which I 
command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me 
from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will 
make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he 
loveth: and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he 
may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. 
And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold Esau 
my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 
my father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem 
to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, 
and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, 
Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, 
and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched, 
and brought them to his mother: and his mother made 
savoury meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah 
took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which 
were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob 
her younger son: and she put the skins of the kids 
of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of 
his neck: and she gave the savoury meat and the 
bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son 
Jacob. 

And he came imto his father, and said. My father: 
and he said. Here am I; who art thou, my son? And 
Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; 



Short Stories in the Bible loi 

I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray 
thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless 
me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou 
hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because 
the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said 
unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel 
thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or 
not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and 
he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but 
the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned 
him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother 
Esau's hands: so he blessed him. And he said. Art 
thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And 
he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's 
venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought 
it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him 
wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto 
him. Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he 
came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell 
of his raiment, and blessed him, and said. See, the 
smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord 
hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of 
heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of 
corn and wine: let people serve thee, and nations bow 
down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy 
mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one 
that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. 
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an 
end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone 
out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau 



I02 Reading the Bible 

his brother came in from his hunting. And he also 
had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, 
and said unto his father. Let my father arise, and eat 
of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. And 
Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And 
he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac 
trembled very exceedingly, and said. Who? where is he 
that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I 
have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed 
him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau 
heard the words of his father, he cried with a great 
and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father. 
Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said. 
Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away 
thy blessing. And he said. Is not he rightly named 
Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times; 
he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath 
taken away my blessing. And he said. Hast thou not 
reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and 
said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, 
and all his brethren have I given unto him for servants; 
and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and 
what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau 
said unto his father. Hast thou but one blessing, my 
father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And 
Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his 
father answered and said unto him. Behold, thy dwell- 
ing shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of 
heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, 
and shalt serve thy brother: and it shall come to pass 



Short Stories In the Bible 103 

when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt 
break his yoke from oflf thy neck. 

Esau inherited a good appetite for food from 
his father. Both were hearty eaters, and both 
were swindled through the love of eating: Isaac 
once, and Esau twice. 

There is no better story in the Old Testament 
than the tale of Joseph and his brethren. 
Everyone is interested in clothes — ^boys and 
girls, old men and women; and the coat of 
many colours which Joseph wore when he was 
seventeen years old, is the first picturesque 
touch in a picturesque career. This gaudy 
plumage stimulated the envious hatred of his 
brothers which his vivid dream enlarged be- 
yond endurance; when they threw the boy into 
the pit, they stripped the coat off, and added 
one more coloiu: to the famous garment, the 
colour of blood, which was too much for old 
Jacob's nerves. The subsequent adventures 
of Joseph in Egypt are dramatic in the extreme; 
and it is an interesting commentary on human 
nature, that Joseph's emphatic refusal to 
betray his benefactor has given him from that 
time to this an undeserved reputation for 
priggishness that he will never live down. The 



I04 Reading the Bible 

very name Joseph savours of pious rather than 
honourable behaviour — consider Joseph Surface, 
no doubt deliberately named. It is worth 
remembering, too, that Potiphar's wife is one 
of the first and most skillful of all the black- 
mailers recorded in criminal history. 

Joseph became the Herbert C. Hoover of 
Egypt. He had the control of the food supply 
when food was short, and apparently had the 
sole power of determining rations. It was this 
official position that brought his brothers back 
to him, all unconscious as they bowed down 
and made obeisance that they were fulfilling 
the early dream. The passionate excitement 
of Joseph at the appearance of Benjamin and 
his inability to control his feelings, show how 
much stronger is family affection than any 
pride of place or any political honour. This is 
one of the greatest of all the great recognition 
scenes in literature; and the happy reunion of 
the whole family, father and brothers together, 
is one of the brightest pages in a book filled 
with tragedies of sin and pain. 

After the city of Gibeon made peace with 
the children of Israel under General Joshua, 
the enemies of the latter were considerably 



Short Stories In the Bible 105 

disquieted, and formed a league of nations 
against the Invader. It was a formidable coali- 
tion; the five kings of the Amorltes, the king 
of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of 
Jarmuth, the king of Lachlsh, the king of Eglon 
made a solemn compact, encamped against 
Gibeon, and invested the town. The people 
of the besieged city managed to get word 
through to Joshua, who by forced marches 
arrived suddenly upon the scene and drove the 
enemy into confusion. While these battalions 
were In full retreat, they were attacked by 
celestial airplanes, or in other words, they 
suffered severely from a terrific hailstorm, 
which caused more casualties than Israel's 
weapons. Now In order that the curtain of 
night might not conceal the flying hosts, Joshua 
commanded the sun to stand still. 

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, 
in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and 
the moon stayed, until the people had avenged them- 
selves upon their enemies. 

Here the chronicler, thinking perhaps the 
story may seem Incredible to future readers, 
remarks conclusively. Is not this written in the 
book of Jasher? 



lo6 Reading the Bible 

So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and 
hasted not to go down about a vrhole day. 

It must have seemed indeed a terribly long 
day to the discomnted hosts of the league of 
kings. 

There are only two references in the Bible 
to the Book of Jasher — and they are tantalising, 
for no one knows what has become of this 
work, nor what kind of a work it was. It must 
have contained some splendid Uterattire, judg- 
ing from the citation here, and the one in the 
first chapter of the second book of Samuel. 

.\lso he bade them teach the cmi-dren of Judah the 
bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher. 

Then follows the magnificent lamentation of 
Da\id over Saul and Jonathan. 

The obedience of the sun to Joshua is often 
regarded as a st unnin g miracle. But some 
years ago. while I stood reverently in front of 
the statue of Copernicus in Warsaw, I could 
not help thinking how much more enduring is 
his influence over the sun than that exercised 
bv the famous fi2:hter. Joshua commanded 
the sun to stand still for one day: but Copemi- 



Short Stories In the Bible 107 

cus, after ages and ages in which the sun had 
regularly revolved around the earth, com- 
manded the sun to stand still for the rest of 
time; and the obedient sun has not moved from 
that day to this. 

The story of Gideon is as interesting as the 
story of Gibeon; and it is not only on adolescent 
examination-papers that the two are confused. 
I remember many years ago, when the authors 
of The Unseen Universe were in activity, they 
were attacked by some scientific authority, 
who, in ridiculing the old Bible narrative, spoke 
of the sun going down on Gideon. The deUghted 
Bible apologists cheerfully admitted that such 
an event would indeed be a miracle; at least, 
they could not see how the sun could go down 
on Gideon without at least causing great per- 
sonal inconvenience to that hero. 

While Gideon is in many ways an attractive 
character, I think his courage has been over- 
praised. I am more impressed by his caution, 
by his racial capacity to drive a shrewd bar- 
gain, by his reluctance to move until success 
was assured. Gideon was the son of Joash, and 
when we first see him, he is threshing wheat 
secretly by the winepress, to hide it from the 



lo8 Reading the Bible 

powerful Midianites. To his amazement the 
angel of the Lord appears and salutes him as 
follows: The Lord is with thee, thou mighty 
man of valour. Gideon's reply is thoroughly 
characteristic: Oh my Lord, if the Lord be 
with us, why then is all this befallen us? and 
where be all his miracles which our fathers 
told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us 
up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath for- 
saken us, and delivered us into the hands of the 
Midianites. Then follows divine reassurance; 
but this is not enough for Gideon. He demands 
a sign, and soon receives one that ought to have 
convinced the most skeptical mind in the world. 
But Gideon, the true ancestor of all those who 
come from Missouri, puts a fleece of wool in 
the floor, and suggests that if the dew fall only 
on the fleece, while all the earth beside is dry, 
then he will believe. On the morrow the mira- 
cle has happened; he wrings a bowl-full of 
water out of the fleece, while all around the 
ground is dry. One can see the expression on 
his face as he makes the further request that on 
the following night everything be wet except 
the fleece. The divine patience is inexhaustible, 
for now the fleece becomes a little island in a 



Short Stories in the Bible 109 

sea of dew. After this triple trial of the Lord's 
message, Gideon goes along with his host, and 
the three hundred men are selected by the 
famous experiment of lapping the water. The 
impartial Bible chronicler narrates without 
comment the following facts, which prove that 
imcertainty and fear yet lingered in the soul 
of this chronic doubter. 

And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord 
said imto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; 
for I have delivered it unto thine hand. But if thou 
fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant, 
down to the host: and thou shalt hear what they say; 
and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go 
down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah 
his servant unto the outside of the armed men that 
were in the host. 

After the overwhelming victory, Gideon 
followed the two kings Zebah and Zalmunna, 
with his three hundred men, who, as the his- 
torian remarked in a phrase that was to be 
memorable, were faint, yet pursuing. As the 
people of Succoth declined to give his little 
army any bread, Gideon adopted a stem peda- 
gogical method. 



no Reading the Bible 

And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the 
wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the 
men of Succoth. 

Tennyson alludes to this switching in his sonnet 
on Buonaparte. 

at Trafalgar yet once more 
We taught him: late he learned humility 
Perforce, like those whom Gideon schooFd with briers. 

Zebah and Zalmunna spoke well and behaved 
well in the presence of death, and their regal 
speech and manner should not be forgotten. 
Gideon asked them, 

What manner of men were they whom ye slew at 
Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; 
each one resembled the children of a king. And he 
said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my 
mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, 
I would not slay you. And he said unto Jether his 
firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew 
not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth. 
Then Zebah and Zalmunna said. Rise thou, and fall 
upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And 
Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmimna, and 
took away the ornaments that were on their camels' 
necks. 



Short Stories in the Bible in 

Gideon had many wives, seventy sons, and 
in the Bible language, died in a good old age. 
As soon as he was dead, the children of Israel 
forsook all his teachings and worshiped Baal. 
His illegitimate son, Abimelech, while not an 
admirable character, for he slew his seventy 
legitimate brothers on one stone, had more 
natural courage than his father. He was a 
desperado, and had the quaUties of his defects. 
He was besieging a city, and there was a strong 
tower within the walls: thither fled all the men 
and women, barred the gate of the tower, and 
stood together on the top, looking dowTi at 
furious Abimelech. He, who had formerly 
brought Bimam wood to Dunsinane, attempted 
to set fire to this edifice, perhaps in the same 
fashion. 

And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought 
against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower 
to bum it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece 
of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake 
his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man 
his armour-bearer, and said unto him. Draw thy sword, ( * 
and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew 5^^ 
him. And his young man thrust him through, and he o^ 

died. 



5 



112 Reading the Bible 

There is something about this villain that 
compels admiration. 

The story of Jephthah's daughter has made 
an indelible impression on the world, although 
her ultimate fate still rests in doubt — ^was she 
slain, or merely condemned to remain im- 
married? Byron, who wrote one of the worst 
of the many poems inspired by this girl, refused 
to be drawn by a correspondent into a contro- 
versy on the subject. ^^ Whatever may be the 
absolute state of the case,'' said the poet, "I 
am innocent of her blood/' And on another 
occasion he remarked, "Well, my hands are 
not imbrued in her blood!" The fearless 
reahsm of the narrator in the book of Judges 
and his impartiahty are plainly shown in the 
first verse that begins this famous tale: 

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of 
valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead 
begat Jephthah. 

Certainly one of the most dramatic scenes in 
the Bible is where the captain's daughter — ^his 
only child — came out to meet him with timbrels 
and with dances. The captain rent his clothes, 
and cried, "Alas, my daughter! thou hast 



Short Stories in the Bible 113 

brought me very low, and thou art one of them 
that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth 
unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." 

No angel intervened, as in the case of Abra- 
ham and Isaac; and this splendid girl met her 
fate with resolution, thinking more of her 
father's victory than of her own sorrow. It is 
curious, that although she is one of the most 
familiar characters in history, the historian 
neglected to mention her name. 

That tedious old fool, Pclonius, who, accord- 
ing to Coleridge, is ^Hhe personification of the 
memory of wisdom no longer possessed," had 
apparently forgotten the old story; when 
Hamlet quoted the Enghsh ballad on the theme, 
the aged counsellor was quite at a loss. 

It is a fair surmise that Shakespeare in his 
own mind condemned Jephthah for keeping the 
vow; for in the play King Henry the Sixth, Part 
Illy Clarence impetuously declares 

I will not ruinate my father's house, 

Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, 

And set up Lancaster. Why, trow'st thou, Warwick, 

That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt, unnatural, 

To bend the fatal instruments of war 

Against his brother and his lawful king? 



1 14 Reading the Bible 

Perhaps thou wilt object my holy oath: 

To keep that oath were more impiety 

Than Jephthah's, when he sacrificed his daughter. 

Faust is the story of the man who regretted 
his compact with the Devil; Jephthah regretted 
his compact with Jehovah. 

Perhaps among the innumerable references 
to this tragedy that mark the pages of English 
literature, the finest tribute to the heroine is to 
be found in Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women. 

"Leaving the olive-gardens far below, 

Leaving the promise of my bridal bower, 
The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow 
Beneath the battled tower. 

"The light white cloud swam over us. Anon 
We heard the lion roaring from his den; 
We saw the large white stars rise one by one, 
Or, from the darkened glen, 

"Saw God divide the night with flying flame. 
And thunder on the everlasting hills. 
I heard Him, for He spake, and grief became 
A solemn scorn of ills. 

"When the next moon was roll'd into the sky. 
Strength came to me that equaird my desire. 
How beautiful a thing it was to die 
For God and for my sure! 



Short Stories in the Bible 115 

"It comforts me in this one thought to dwell, 
That I subdued me to my father's will; 
Because the kiss he gave me, ere I fell, 
Sweetens the spirit still. 

"Moreover it is written that my race 

Hew'd Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer 
On Arnon unto Minneth." Here her face 
Glow'd, as I look'd at her. 

She lock'd her lips; she left me where I stood: 
"Glory to God,'' she sang, and past afar, 
Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood, 
Toward the morning-star. 

The first great illustration of a modem 
fashion in literary art is the dramatic story of 
Rahab, who hid the spies on the top of her 
house, and was duly rewarded in the day of 
reckoning. She is highly complimented in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, by being included 
among those who triumphed through faith; 
while this writer mentions her as an example 
of faith, the apostle James calls her to the stand 
as one justified by works. Possibly our Lord 
had Rahab in mind when He declared with 
terrible force to the chief priests, Verily I say 
unto you. That the publicans and harlots go 



Ii6 Reading the Bible 

into the kingdom of God before you. The 
professional religious hypocrite is placed lower 
in the moral scale than the professional sinner. 
It is curious that many who attack the 
Bible to-day attack it for the very virtues they 
praise most strenuously in modem writers — I 
refer to its calm reahsm and unashamed pre- 
sentment of all the facts in the lives of Old 
Testament characters, where no attempt is 
made to win the favour of the reader by the 
suppression or glossing over of gross and hein- 
ous faults. Samson is siu-ely a sympathetic 
character; every reader loves him. Milton did 
not hesitate to make a superb protagonist out 
of him, and Delilah has been a synonym for 
wickedness, treachery, and deceit. But the 
Bible narrator does not defend Samson; his 
downfall was his own fault for being such an 
idiot. In reading Milton one would imagine 
that Samson was some holy elder in the church 
who, despite his sharp self-accusations, had 
been cruelly deceived; but the Bible is more 
objective, and puts down the good and the bad 
in this giant's career without comment. One 
naturally feels a certain sweetness in his revenge 
when he pulled the building upon his jeering 



Short Stories in the Bible 117 

enemies. Perhaps it is not impertinent to 
recall the jest of our American humorist, John 
Kendrick Bangs, who said that Samson was a 
famous practical joker and that his last joke 
brought down the house. 

The story of Balak and Balaam is one of the 
first instances in history where a political boss 
discovers to his chagrin that he cannot control 
his most influential orator. With bribery and 
flattery he invited Balaam to come and de- 
nounce Israel; but Balaam, as has happened 
more than once since then, will not play the 
role assigned to him, because he hears an inner 
voice of duty louder than the blandishments 
of Balak. The modem political analogy is 
complete; for after two severe disappointments, 
Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at 
all, nor bless them at all — I don't know why I 
find that remark so amusing, except that I can 
hear Balak's tone so plainly — ^^If you find you 
can't help me, do at all events stay neutral, 
keep your mouth shut." But the disappointed 
impresario is to regret even more bitterly that 
he drew this obstinate speaker into the cam- 
paign; Balaam will be neither an advocate nor 
silent, but pours out a flood of oratory for the 



Ii8 Reading the Bible 

other side, winding up with the rather strange 
invitation to Balak to come and visit, "and 
I will advertise thee what this people shall do 
to thy people in the latter days/' The invita- 
tion does not seem particularly alluring, yet 
Balak, who is one of the few men in the Bible 
characterised by undeviating stupidity, seems 
to have accepted it. 

The famous story of Ahab and Naboth's 
vineyard reminds us of the towering insolence 
and uncontrolled greed of the German Emperor, 
William II: and the answer of Naboth, who 
knew he was no match in power with the king, 
reminds us of the reply made to a certain re- 
quest, by Belgium — ^And Naboth said unto 
Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should 
give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. 

Peevish King Ahab went on a hunger strike, 
but Jezebel knew how to manage both the 
executive and the judicial departments of the 
government. Whatever of truth there may be 
in Kipling's general assertion that the female 
of the species is more deadly than the male, 
there can be no doubt that Jezebel was a more 
formidable foe than Ahab. Like Macbeth, he 
let I dare not wait upon I would; but Jezebel 



Short Stories in the Bible 119 

was even bolder than Lady Macbeth, for in- 
stead of trusting her husband to carry out her 
plans, she attended to the matter herself. The 
sequel to this story of avarice and murder is 
fittingly tragic. Elijah prophesies that Jezebel's 
body shall be eaten by dogs, but the Bible 
narrative turns aside to discuss so many other 
matters that we forget — as perhaps Jezebel 
did — the fate foretold. Suddenly, many chap- 
ters farther along, when the reader is absorbed 
in the story of Joram and Ahaziah, Jehu ap- 
pears on the scene. His furious driving is an 
indication of his imperious and impetuous 
temperament. 

And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, 
and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and 
said, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horse- 
man, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it 
peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him, 
and said. Thus saith the king. Is it peace? And Jehu 
said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee 
behind me. And the watchman told, saying, The 
messenger came to them, but he cometh not again. 
Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came 
to them, and said. Thus saith the king. Is it peace? 
And Jehu answered. What hust thou to do with peace? 
turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, sa>'inij;, 



120 Reading the Bible 

Re came e\'en unto then, ani cmeih not again: and 
the driving is like the dirving of Jehu the son o: Xim- 
shi; for he driveth furioi^y. . . . And when Jehu -^us 
come to Jezreel, Jezd)el heard of it; and she p^i-.ri 
he: fi. : e . 21. d :ired her head, and looked out at a window. 
Ai i :.s fhu trtfrrd in at the gate, she said. Had Zirir: 
;ei:e. "h: 5 r^ lis master? And he lifted up his :^ci 
:: the ^ ri - . ^nd sakL Who is :z ny side? who? 
Azii :i:r:r 1 :>f i : ■: :: llr. — : :: :'z:tz. . . . And 
:\t 5:11 _ur:"~ :irr i:~7:. ^: 'Jiey Llltcv; urr ir'^vniand 
s :ur :: i.^: :^::i t .,5 si riiLiiled on the -^i^,, and on 
i r Irses, and he tiode her under fooL And "lez 
i 7 r me in, he did eat aiKl drink, and siii Go, 
see n:" -iis cursed woman, and bury her: izz siie is a 
kirg s di-i^lrer. .\i:i iley -t^z :: bury her: but 
they fcHiDd no more of he: :lei ::i7 su .. :,zd the feet, 
and the r^.hns <rf her her. is 'hiereiore they came 
ag*e.ii. „ie idd him. Ani hr se:e This is the word of 
the Lord, which he s;ehr :; h s srint, Elijah the 
l^hbite, saying I" :he poruon oi Jezred, shall dogs 
eattheflediof Ititzz'.. 



T::e recent conquest of Palestine by the 
British army under General Allenby, has 
brought \'i\idly to the minds of many not only 
the famous prophecies in Isaiah and in other 
books, but the old stories. To iniaginati\'e 
soldiers, Jerusalem, Jezreel. and other places 
must have seemed full of ghosts. This idea is 



Short Stories in the Bible I2i 

the inspiration of a poem by Thomas Hardy, 
pubHshed in the London Times in 1918. 

JEZREEL 

Did they catch as it were in a Vision at shut of the day — 
When their cavalry smote through the ancient Es- 
draelon Plain, 
And they crossed where the Tishbite stood forth in his 
enemy's way — 
His gaunt, mournful Shade as he bade the king haste 
off amain? 

On war-men at this end of time — even on Englishmen's 
eyes — 
Who slay with their arms of new might in the long- 
ago place, 

Flashed he who drove furiously? . . . Ah, did the 
phantom arise 

Of that queen — of that proud Tyrian woman who 
painted her face? 

Faint-marked they the words, '^ Throw her down," 
rise from Time eerily 
Spectre-spots of the blood of her body on some 
rotten wall? 
And the thin note of pity that came: "A king's daughter 
is she," 
As they passed where she trodden was once by the 
chargers' footfall? 



122 Reading the Bible 

Could such be the hauntings of men of to-day, at the 
cease 
Of pursuit, at the dusk-hour, ere sliunber their 
senses could steal? 

Enghosted seers, kings — one on horseback who asks 
''Is it peace?'' 

Yea, strange things and spectral may men have be- 
held in Jezreel ! 

One of the most simple and beautiful of the 
short stories in the Bible is the account of the 
mighty man Naaman, and how the little maid, 
an Israelite captive among the Syrians, gave 
witness to the power of the man of God in the 
household of His enemies. Then after the cure 
of leprosy was complete, and the great physi- 
cian had refused any fee, and had settled the 
question of religious courtesy for his distin- 
guished visitor, the charming story has a tragic 
close, all the more stem and solemn because 
the reader is unprepared for such a conclusion. 
Never shall I forget the first time I read this 
chapter, and my horror at the last sentence: 

And he went out from his presence a leper as 
white as snow. 

Elijah and Elisha were pitiless when the occa- 
sion seemed to demand drastic methods; and 



Short Stories in the Bible 123 

I am afraid that their treatment of persons who 
did not pay suflBcient respect to their dignity 
had a not altogether salutary effect on the 
bearing of our Puritan ancestors. EUjah did 
not hesitate to bum alive two companies of 
men along with their captains; but I think the 
most depressing page in the Bible is the con- 
duct of Elisha, who, having worn his new 
honours only a short time, receives a fusillade 
of personal comments from the little gamins 
who came out of the city streets. The type is 
eternal; these boys are the same in all countries 
and in all ages. 

There came forth little children out of the city, and 
mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald 
head: go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, 
and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of 
the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of 
the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 

I remember how this story affected me in my 
childhood; and how my mother, who seemed 
for some reason to feel it necessary to defend 
all the acts of the prophet, reasoned with me 
in a way that certainly did not convince me 
and which I am now sure did not convince her. 
Honest, faithful, realistic Bible, putting down 



124 Reading the Bible 

with appalling blimtness the good and the bad 
in a man's life! Even professional prophets 
had their off days — and lost their temper with 
unfortunate consequences to those in the im- 
mediate vicinity. But can't you see the Co- 
lonial Puritan reading aloud this incident at 
morning prayers, with a final look over his 
glasses at the children? 

The book of Esther, the book of Daniel, and 
the Apocrypha abound in admirable specimens 
of the art of the Short Story, where, as is com- 
monly the rule elsewhere in the Bible, dramatic 
intensity is gained by the absence of rhetorical 
flourishes. In the famous story of the writing 
on the wall in the book of Daniel, the fairness 
of the doomed king ought to be recorded to his 
credit. Belshazzar announced that if Daniel 
could interpret the writing, he should be 
clothed m scarlet, have a chain of gold about 
his neck, and become the third ruler in the 
kingdom. Daniel's interpretation was not 
only uncomplimentary to the king's character, 
but also a stem prediction of his ruin. Yet 
although Daniel, with studied insolence, had 
declined the rewards in advance, no sooner was 
his indictment completed than it is followed 



Short Stories in the Bible 125 

by the simple words, Then commanded Bel- 
shazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, 
and put a chain of gold about his neck, and 
made a proclamation concerning him, that he 
should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 

Let us remember that if this royal Pagan 
could not keep his kingdom, he kept his 
word. 

Although the Old Testament is filled vrith 
short stories of great power and beauty, it is 
when we turn to the New Testament that we 
find the supreme examples of the art. The 
suprernacy of our Lord as a spiritual teacher is 
cordially recognised even by many who do not 
believe in His divine mission; but he was su- 
preme in other ways as well. The distinguished 
American playwright, Augustus Thomas, has 
in an admirable essay, em.phasised the ph3'sical 
prowess and endurance of Jesus Christ; from 
every point of view He is not only the Teacher, 
but the Model for all men. We should remem- 
ber also that He was a supreme literary artist. 
The short stories that He produced with such 
colloquial ease are the finest in the world; they 
are, indeed, the despair of all professional men 
of letters. No tales ever written combine such 



126 Reading the Bible 

amazing power with such impressive economy 
in the use of words. The parables are the 
perfection of realistic art; the tremendous 
paradoxes are driven home with a simplicity 
that has the apparent unconsciousness of a 
flower. The Mediaeval Church made a litur- 
gical drama out of the story of the wise and 
foolish virgins; the supper at Simon's house is 
as though it happened yesterday; the three 
famous parables dealing with money are all 
equally vivid, — I mean the woman who lost 
the piece of silver, the men who were entrusted 
with the talents, and the labourers who were 
hired for a certain sum. No one can forget the 
two men named Lazarus; Lazarus who died 
and went to heaven, and Lazarus who died and 
returned to earth. The resurrection of Lazarus 
has had an astonishingly germinal effect on 
literature from that day to this. Tennyson 
pauses and reflects about him in In Memoriam; 
one of Browning's greatest poems deals with 
his spiritual transformation; our American 
poet, Anna Branch, was inspired by this tale 
to write one of her most dramatic pieces; and 
no one who reads Dostoevski's marvellous 
novel, Crime and Punishment ^ will fail to be im- 



Short Stories in the Bible 127 

pressed by the scene where Sonia with choking 
voice reads aloud the story of Lazarus to the 
despairing criminal. 

Sonia opened the book and found the place. Her 
hands were shaking, her voice failed her. Twice she 
tried to begin and could not bring out the first syllable. 
"Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of 
Bethany/' she forced herself at last to read, but at 
the third word her voice broke like an overstrained 
string. There was a catch in her breath. Raskolnikov 
saw in part why Sonia could not bring herself to read 
to him and the more he saw this, the more roughly 
and irritably he insisted on her doing so. He imder- 
stood only too well how painful it was for her to betray 
and unveil all that was her own. He understood that 
these feelings really were her secret treasure, which 
she had kept perhaps for years, perhaps from child- 
hood, while she lived with an unhappy father and a 
distracted stepmother crazed by grief, in the midst of 
starving children, and unseemly abuse. . . . "And 
when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, 
Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came 
forth." She read loudly, cold and trembling with ec- 
stasy, as though she were seeing it before her eyes. . . . 
She still trembled feverishly. The candle-end was 
flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly light- 
ing up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer 
and the harlot who had so strangely been reading to- 
gether the eternal book. 



128 Reading the Bible 

Jesus not only raised Lazarus from the dead — 
He did more: He gave him immortal life on 
earth, in all languages and in all nations. 

The parable of the Prodigal Son is not prop- 
erly named. The word ^^ prodigal'' occurs 
nowhere in the Bible. The reason why this is 
called the Parable of the Prodigal Son is because 
most readers still suppose it to be merely a 
story of sin, repentance, and fatherly love. 
But it is really the story of a certain man who 
had two sons; and there is just as much empha- 
sis on the elder as on the younger brother. 
The Puritan conception of sin was generally so 
narrow that our ancestors actually beheved 
that the rich farmer had two boys, one of whom 
was bad and one good. Now as a matter of 
fact he had two bad sons, both very bad, of 
whom the elder was the worse. Let us grant 
the selfishness and debauchery of the younger. 
Perhaps he would never have come home at 
all if his money had not given out, sharpening 
the importimate spin: of hunger. And it was 
by no accident that his father met him on his 
return. The father was sure that the boy 
would come home again, and who knows how 
many days he had gone forth to await his 



Short Stories In the Bible 129 

appearance? When the ashamed lad tried to 
apologise, the father made him feel at once 
that his motive in retmning was of no impor- 
tance compared with the overwhelming joy of 
the fact. If we could have back from the grave 
those that we love, should we care very much 
what motive brought them? 

Now to regard the elder son as good and his 
brother as bad is surely to misunderstand 
profoundly the true significance of this mar- 
vellous story. The elder brother was so case- 
hardened by selfish respectability that no force 
of love could break through his armour; his 
petulance is the outward sign of ineradicable 
and incurable vice. When did I ever transgress 
thy commandment? When have I ever done 
anything wrong? . . . That negative concep- 
tion of virtue has been responsible for the error 
of all errors concerning the beauty of holiness. 
Is virtue then negative? If his father had not 
been so obstreperously happy in his boy's 
return, he might have asked this cold-hearted 
prig some embarrassing questions. 

Our Lord's matchless stories are the purest 
realism; and in the strange book of Revelation 
we find the wildest romanticism. In the year 



130 Reading the Bible 

1918, the sudden fame of Ibanez's novel set 
everybody to rereading the sixth chapter of 
the most mystical work in the Bible, where the 
four horsemen of the Apocalj-pse appear. 

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that 
sat on him had a bow: and a crown was given unto 
him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 

And there went out another horse that was red: 
and power was given to him that sat thereon to take 
peace from the earth: and that they should kill one 
another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 

And I beheld, and lo a black horse: and he that sat 
on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name 
that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. 

As the vision of the four horses inspired a 
popular twentieth-century novel, so the story 
of the One w^ho had on his vesture and on his 
thigh vmtten, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, 
gave to the verse of the twentieth century a 
thrilling poem by that modem mystic Francis 
Thompson, the poem called The Vetera^i of 
Heaven, 

The story of the famous Beast has set many 
would-be mathematicians to weary months of 
calculation, in the attempt to find a fulfillment 



Short Stories In the Bible 131 

of the oracular description. Mr. Birrell some- 
where alludes to that large and highly interest- 
ing class of persons who prefer statistics to 
poetry. It is curious to reflect that the chief 
interest of many in the book of Revelation is 
to juggle with figures, just as there are those 
whose main energy as they read the pages of 
Shakespeare is to himt for a cipher. 

As the Bible day by day exerts its regener- 
ating and vivifying spiritual influence on the 
souls of men, so its sublime and homely poetry 
and prose recreate new masterpieces in all 
literatures, which rise from the inexhaustible 
spring of living water in the Word of Life. 



Printed in the United States of America 



T 



HE following pages contain advertisements of 
Macmillan books by the same author. 



WILLIAM LYON PHELPS' RECENT BOOK 



The 20th Century Theatre: 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH 
AND AMERICAN STAGE 

Cloth, I2fn0j $1.25 

Here is an absolutely up-to-date book on the theatre, 
dealing with matters of interest to all theatregoers. Professor 
Phelps discusses among other things the various classes of 
modern plays, the musical comedies, the influence of the 
moving picture, the melodrama and farce, Shakespearian 
productions, the effect of stock companies, the status of 
dramatic criticism, the price of theatre seats, the time for 
beginning performances, the dramatization of novels, impor- 
tant plays of the last few seasons, stage setting and scenery, 
the drama league, and the influence of universities. 

There is also a chapter on "How to See and Enjoy a Play.*' 

"Professor Phelps is an academic critic without academic 
superstition." — Baltimore Sun. \ V^i<^.^^-^ v 

"Professor Phelps is certainly a master in the art of saying \ 

much in little. In a few pages, with clear, concise sentences, 
an epigram here, a sly suggestion there, a personality is limned 
for you within thmnb-nail limits. . . ." — The Bellman, 

"His work both as teacher at Yale and as a writer is doing 
much to emphasize the value of fiction as an intellectual 
power and to place it on an equal standing with all the other 
departments of literature." — Boston Transcript, 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



\X% 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Essays on Books 

{New Edition Preparing) 

*^ They are the natural utterance of such a dweller as 
Mr. Phelps is in such a world as the present. They re- 
count his adventures with certain masters and master- 
pieces among whom natural tastes and occasions have 
thrown him. They are genuine in their kind, whether 
brief notes and reviews, as many of them are, or essays 
of some length and pretension. ... By far the longest 
essay in the volume — the essay on Richardson — is 
also in many respects the best. . . . Mr. Phelps's 
analysis of the famous romances is, with all its compact- 
ness, perhaps the best that has been made within any 
compass." — The Nation, 

"This is just what we want." — George Hodges, in 
The Congregationalist 

" A sense of humor is, perhaps, the best key an essay- 
ist can possess to unlock the hearts of his readers. . . . 
A keen sense of humor is, even more than Professor 
William Lyon Phelps's power of analysis, the especial 
patent by which he claims our attention. . . . But the 
most to be recommended of all the essays in the book 
is that very able one which opens the volume and which 
is called ^ Realism and Reality in Fiction.' No subject 
is so well adapted to frequent and illuminating reflec- 
tions, and Professor Phelps, it may be safely said, pre- 
sents real light upon the tendencies of modern fiction.'* 
— Boston Herald. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New Tork 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Elssays on Modern Novelists 

Cloth i2mo $1,^0 

Professor Phelps opens the book with a discussion of William 
De Morgan, whom he analyzes closely, dwelling on his remark- 
able personality, and comparing his art with that of Dickens. 
From De Morgan he passes to Thomas Hardy, keenly consider- 
ing all of his output and showing without prejudice the good 
and the bad. Hardy's pessimism is shown to be the ground 
principle in his novels, with his firm conviction that " morally 
men and women are immensely superior to God." Other rep- 
resentative modern novelists to whom separate essays are 
devoted are Howells, Mark Twain, Bjornson, Sienkiewicz, 
Sudermann, Ollivant, Stevenson, Blackmore, Kipling, and Mrs. 
Humphry Ward. The chapter on Mrs. Ward presents an en- 
tirely different view of her work and talents from that taken by 
conventional criticism. This original and searching analysis has 
already aroused much comment both in England and in America. 
The volume closes with a discussion of " Novels as a University 
Study" and "The Teacher's Attitude toward Contemporary 
Literature." A complete list of publications, with dates, of all 
the authors treated in the work, is included. 

There is also an estimate of Mrs. Humphry Ward, than which 
there has been nothing better written of this prolific English- 
woman. And these essays are not written in the usual profes- 
sorial manner, but in the keen personal vein which makes the 
literary estimates as valuable for their self-revelation as for 
their adequate appraisal. To me, the most illuminating review 
in the book is the critical study of Rudyard Kipling. — Los 
Angeles Times. 

Professor Phelps's method of treatment is gentle, kindly, but 
shrewdly penetrative, so that the reader will find himself in 
sympathy with his judgments. — Independent, 

Professor Phelps is certainly a master in the art of saying much 
in little. In a few pages, with clear, concise sentences, an 
epigram here, a sly suggestion there, a personality is limned 
for you within thumb-nail limits. ... A book that is amus- 
ing, helpful, sound, and stimulating. — l^ie Bellman. 

Mr. Phelps is at his best in his essay on Hardy. — London 
Times, 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publiihera 64-66 Fifth Avenue Now York 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Essays on Russian Novelists 

Cloth Illustrated i2mo $i.jo 

Professor: Phelps follows closely the style of his recent success- 
ful work, " Essays on Modern Novelists." He discusses the 
Russians with absolute frankness, pointing out their defects 
and their merits. Besides the great authors, Pushkin, Gogol, 
Turgenev, Dostoevski, and Tolstoi, short chapters deal with 
contemporaries, — Andreev, Gorki, Chekhov, Artsybashev, 
Kuprin. A complete list with dates of all the writings of these 
men, with the translations, is included in the volume, making 
it invaluable for reference. " Russian literature is the voice 
of a giant, waking from a long sleep, and becoming articulate." 

The author of " Essays on Russian Novelists " gives such evi- 
dence of a real grasp of the Russian character that he must be 
imbued with the spirit of love and sympathy which he ascribes 
to Russians. . . . The book is written in a fluent style, the 
interest never flags, and it contains much excellent material. 

— London AthencBum, 

A book . . . which no American lover of Russian fiction 
should fail to read. — Chicago Inter- Ocean, 

. During the course of these studies Professor Phelps places and 
holds his finger upon the pulsating force of Russian fiction, its 
deep and intense gloom. To each of the great story-«tellers 
Professor Phelps gives an essay that has the dominant virtue 
of clearness, and no small measure of analytic power. — Boston 
Transcript, 

In his broad portraiture of the disclosure of the Russian genius 
in the field of art in which it has made great achievements, 
Mr. Phelps has written a book of authoritative racial interpre- 
tation. — The Outlook, 

II est toujours interessant pour les cercles intellectuels d'un 
pays de lire un jugement sur leur litterature, exprime par un 
critique etranger, intelligent et erudit. Le cas se presente 
avec le petit volume intitule " Essays on Russian Novelists." 
Le volume commence par une etude generale . . . 6tude pleine 
d'observations fines et d'idees neuves. — Mercure de France. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Pttlttlisliers 64-66 Fiftb Avenue Nev Tork 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Teaching in School and College 

Cloth i2mo $>jjOO 

** A frank, vigorous, and certainly a readable little book." — 
The Nation. 

" The long, practical experience of the author and his remark- 
able success make his message worth listening to, and the clear 
and vigorous style in which it is presented insures that it will 
receive the full attention it deserves." — The Independent, 

"Professor Phelps' book is considerably more intimate than 
the majority of works upon this subject. It is concrete, spe- 
cific, and practical throughout." — The DiaL 

" This little book is like a fresh breeze blowing across the arid 
plains of scientific pedagogy. . . . Any teacher in any school 
or college will be helped and encouraged by reading these 
chapters." — Samuel T. Dutton, in The Educational Review, 

** Wit and wisdom mingle throughout the pages of this volume, 
whether Mr. Phelps is discussing English pronunciation or the 
moral aspect of teaching. It will prove pleasant as well as 
profitable reading for the teacher in school or college." — BoS' 
ton Transcript, 

**A characteristically vigorous and unpedantic book which 
speaks to those who can catch the spirit of teaching rather 
than to those who await explicit instruction in the letter, though 
it contains many valuable suggestions in the technical part of 
teaching." — Springfield Republican, 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New Tork 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0002163^8^'^ 



' "; ,l!!Mi P'iiil 



lit liii ii iiu i I 




